Forgotten
by IvyLatimer24
Summary: Scarred by Cam's betrayal, Nixie vanishes the night of her 17th birthday and is gone for 10 years. Everyone thought she was dead until she returned. A pod of rogue mermen have gained her trust; their king plans to start war against mermaids again and use Nixie to help him create a new trident. Over his greed, can Cam gain her trust again and make her change her mind? CamxNixie :)
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Here it is! My idea that was in my mind for weeks has finally come out in writing. Enjoy, Nixie/Cam lovers :) Follow, Favourite and Review.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mako Mermaids. Thought I might do the disclaimer this time, I never thought to before so today I thought to myself Why Not. Enjoy Story.**

It was the week after Cam's betrayal with the trident, and the day of Nixie's 17th birthday. But like every other day after that unforgettable full moon, she just sat alone in the moon pool staring into space and fighting tears.

As Nixie stroked the smooth brown stone layering the cave rocks, she leaned against the side of the pool, swishing her tail quietly.

Cam's lies, his tricks, his face, his smirk, his attempt to destroy this sacred place with the trident flashed constantly in Nixie's mind whilst she repeatedly hacked through her damp dark locks with the mermaid comb even though hours earlier she'd got rid of all the tangles.

Cam. Cam. Cam.

The word was locked inside her mind, bashing at the inside of her skull to escape but kept repeating. Tears erupted from her sad blue eyes and fresh anger flooded through her.

Lyla and Sirena surfaced behind her, and hearing them Nixie immediately dunked her head beneath the water and resurfaced to greet them and cover up her sadness.

"Why are you here alone Nixie?" Lyla asked her in concern.

"Rita's organized heaps of seafood for the party. Don't you want to come back to the house for your first time as a seventeen year old mermaid?" Sirena reminded Nixie cheerfully.

Nixie turned away and ignored them, still trying to hide her tears.

Lyla and Sirena exchanged glances.

"You can't be still upset about what happened with Cam." Lyla realised.

"Don't bug her, Lyla." Sirena said softly, "She has a right to be unhappy, after all, she's the one who got so close to him and the one he lied to the most."

"I'm not unhappy!" Nixie snapped, turning around abruptly, trying to force a smile and failing. "I need this seafood." She swam down and zoomed out the underwater entrance to Mako, with the other two mermaids following her.

"It's so strange yet so comforting that we're celebrating a birthday the mermaid way." Rita commented as Lyla and Sirena placed 17 small seashells in a line on the table covered in seafood, and pulled out small gifts and passed them to Nixie.

"What, do land people do different things on birthdays then?" Sirena wondered.

"They eat cake, with candles on top and they sing a traditional song." Rita explained.

"What the hell is cake?" Lyla demanded.

"I had cake once!" Sirena piped up. "David gave me some as dessert when he took me out to dinner. It's really good."

"Well you could have told us and we could have arranged-" Lyla protested.

"Look, I don't want a cake, okay?" Nixie interrupted, raising her voice. "Or anything else that land people eat. We aren't humans. I want to do this just like we always have in the pod."

"Okay, okay." Lyla sighed.

"Open your gift from me!" Sirena encouraged Nixie, gesturing to something small wrapped in orange and pink seaweed.

Nixie picked it up and fingered the soft wrapping carefully. Pulling it apart, Nixie smiled when she uncovered a beautiful shell. It wasn't just any shell. She turned it over and saw a shape engraved into it - the shape of three mermaids swimming together.

"It's just like the ones you make for Aquata." she said.

Sirena beamed, and pointed to the picture, while Lyla leaned over to take a look.

"This one's me, this one is Lyla, and the one in the middle is you." Sirena told Nixie proudly, showing them to her individually.

"It's beautiful." Nixie sighed. "Thank you Sirena."

After slipping the shell into the pocket of her black denim shorts, she turned to face Lyla, and Lyla smiled.

"My present's out in the water." she informed Nixie. "I'll show it to you later."

Nodding, Nixie moved on to the seventeen seashells on the table., her smile starting to fade.

"Think yourself luckier than the land people." Rita said, "You get seventeen wishes, they only get one."

One wish.

Suddenly angry, Nixie threw the shells off the table and they smashed into tiny bits on the floor.

"I only want one wish!" she yelled angrily.

Everyone watched in dismay as Nixie bursted into tears and after stuffing a handful of prawns in her mouth, stormed out of the room, sprinting down the hall.

Lyla and Sirena ran after her.

As soon as Nixie entered the room of bookshelves, she ripped the mermaid mythology book down so hard that it broke off and thudded on the ground.

By the time her friends had reached the room, Nixie had disappeared through the opening doorway between the shelves and had run down to Rita's pool and dove in.

Lyla and Sirena skipped stairs running after her but after seeing ripples in the water from where Nixie had swum away, gave up.

"There isn't any point in going after her." Lyla said sadly. "Nixie's smart enough not to do anything bad, and following her will throw away any chance of her telling us what's wrong."

"That's the thing." Sirena answered, "I think we already know what's wrong."

They both looked at each other nervously.

Swimming over reefs and around rocks, Nixie propelled herself as fast as she'd ever swum as far from home as she possibly could.

Dolphins glided beside her, listening to their squeaks Nixie knew that they were wishing her a happy birthday but murmured to them admittedly she was feeling upset and wanted to be alone.

Time dragged on and Nixie was beginning to get tired, her tail ached from flipping and waving to help her swim. Her arms fell to her sides and her eyes closed as she sank down to perhaps fall asleep on the sand at the bottom.

Sirena and Lyla were awake almost all night in the moon pool waiting for their friend to return.

"Maybe we should just give up." Lyla groaned sleepily, her head nodding against the rocks.

"No way." Sirena protested.

"Maybe she just went to sleep somewhere else." Lyla added, shifting her position.

"I guess…" Sirena trailed off unhappily. "I'm really worried, Lyla. What if-"

"Nothing." Lyla interrupted harshly. "Nixie's fine, I'm sure of it."

Sirena bit her lip and looked down into the water for the familiar dark haired head to surface. No one did.

The sun was rising slowly, and Nixie opened her eyes to find herself still submerged in the ocean. New light billowed through the surface and she pushed her way to the top.

Nixie broke the surface and glanced around. Everything was unfamiliar, Mako Island was no longer visible behind her, and she wasn't even sure which direction it was.

Endless blue sea crashed in clear waves to her left, and to the right she could see some boats and docks followed by a small area of human developed land that she'd never seen before. Straight ahead there was an island, smaller and flatter than Mako with no trees.

Squinting at the land and swimming closer, Nixie saw that this island wasn't much of an island, in fact it was connected to the human occupied town to the right, just separated by a deep river connecting to a huge lake in the middle of the island.

The lake looked private and quiet, as it was surrounded by rocks hiding it from the land people's view and she was sure she could see small fish and swimming around in the water there.

Nixie continued to swim closer and closer, and now she noticed some figures in the lake, moving around. Seeing their tails, Nixie was certainly sure they weren't human but still wondered what they really were.

Approaching the area cautiously, she peered over some rocks to see what these people were doing.

Gigantic rocks were flying over the wide river from the tiny human town to the lake on the island. The creatures in the lake shouted in male voices angry protests at the human made cranes that were lifting rocks into the air and dropping into their home.

The tailed men in the lake motioned their arms, made the rocks fly away and crash back into the human territory.

Mermen, Nixie thought in amazement, dragging herself up on to the rock to watch.

"Stop ruining our home! You're all idiots!" One with shoulder length brown hair yelled angrily at the human men controlling the crane. The human stuck his head out the side window of the crane to look at who was shouting and the merman ducked behind a rock, swishing his blue tail in exasperation.

A bulldozer moved in and attempted to dig up the ground on the mermens' island. Dirt and rocks exploded everywhere as three other mermen used their powers to snap the machine apart, just as it had dug into the ground.

These three mermen, (one wearing a golden crown and long straight black hair) looked to the side in astonishment as one of the biggest rocks sailed into the air and suddenly rocketed down, heading straight for Nixie. Nixie screamed before the rock slammed into her head and she fell off and into the water.

**AN: So that was chapter one! Please follow and review if you liked it, because I have lots of exciting plans for the rest of the story coming up. I'm not one of those people that just take AGES to update chapters, I like to write and that means there will be lots to read. Note that future chapters may not be as long as this, I wanted to have a big start to this. Thanks for bothering to read this!**

**-MaryKCL123**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Keep reading the chapter from after the last one, it isn't ten years later yet. I will let you know when it is. Enjoy :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mako Mermaids**

Sirena's eyes flickered open to her position in the moon pool. Lyla was sprawled out on the other side, snoring quietly.

Sirena nudged Lyla.

"Lyla!"

"What?" Lyla yawned and opened her sleepy eyes. "Wow, we've slept in late."

"Lyla, Nixie's not back!" Sirena exclaimed.

Lyla's eyes widened in recognition and the two mermaids dove down and out the underwater exit into the ocean.

After hours of searching, on both land and at sea, they stopped at the Ocean Cafe to rest for a while. David approached their table cheerfully.

"Hey, guys. Something to eat?"

"Just water, thanks." Lyla said breathlessly, still panting from the frantic search for Nixie.

David frowned sympathetically.

"You look exhausted. Are you still up for tonight's gig Sirena?" he asked, scribbling down Lyla's order.

"Of course," Sirena replied anxiously, "It's just that Nixie's missing. She swa- ran off yesterday and we haven't seen her since."

"That's awful." David said. "I hope you find her."

"Me too." Sirena sighed, "I'll have a glass of water too, and some prawns."

"Coming up." David left the table and disappeared into the room behind the counter.

"You don't usually order prawns." Lyla raised her eyebrows.

"Nixie loves prawns." Sirena answered quietly.

**XxXxX**

All Nixie knew inside was that her head hurt. It throbbed painfully but a moment later she felt cold water splash on the wound, and the pain eased.

Feeling underneath her, Nixie realised she was lying on her back on a flat rock. Shifting, she slapped her tail against the stone and she opened her eyes.

"She's awake!" A young merman with short blond hair shouted. Nixie let out a long breath and sat up to find a bunch of curious mermen crowded around her.

Whispers echoed through the group, but there was only silence from the tallest of them, who had long straight black hair that ended at his elbows, shining black eyes and a golden crown on his head with a single faded blue stone in the middle.

He looked about twenty, the oldest of the group.

"Wh.. where am I?" Nixie murmured.

Mutters continued to spread through the mermen, not really answering her question.

"It's like a female version of us!"

"Why is her tail orange instead of blue?"

"She's so pretty!'

"What is she?"

"She's a mermaid, dummy!"

"I thought mermaids haven't been seen for a thousand years!"

Nixie frowned and sat up.

"I thought mermen hadn't been seen for a thousand years. Now will somebody tell me where I am, and why I'm here?"

The oldest one with black hair Nixie had noticed earlier answered her finally.

"Well, you were down that way swimming around, and right when we were trying to stop this bunch of idiot land people from wrecking our home, one of the rocks hit you." he informed her.

"But… I don't remember doing that." Nixie said in confusion. "In fact, I can't remember anything."

"That rock must have knocked out your memory or something!" Another merman less immature than the others realised. "You think that's what happened Arroyo?" he turned to the one with black hair and the crown.

"It must have." Arroyo said. "What's your name, young mermaid."

That was one thing Nixie did remember.

"Nixie." she told him. "And I'm… seventeen, and I used to live on… an island… I don't remember its name."

"I see." Arroyo nodded. "Do you remember anything else? Or anybody you used to know?"

"Nope." Nixie shook her head. "I don't remember anybody."

"Well, I'm terribly sorry Nixie, I'm afraid we won't be able to help you find your way back home. For one thing we don't know where it is, let alone what it's called. It would be terrible of us to send you away…"

"She's a mermaid! She can't be trusted!" A younger merman of about fifteen shouted. More protests echoed through the large pod.

"She's got no memory of her past anymore!" Arroyo yelled over the top of them. "So she's no harm to us! I am your leader, so you must obey me!"

"She's innocent!" The merman with shoulder length brown hair agreed. Nixie noticed he was also wearing a crown, but smaller.

"Perhaps Nixie could help us." Arroyo wondered. "Be a part of our pod. We may need at least one female after all."

"Excuse me?" Nixie interrupted.

"No no I didn't mean it like that!" he said quickly. "But, young Nixie, so beautiful, I would like it that you would take my hand in marriage and be queen of the Freshwater Falls pod."

Nixie's mouth dropped open.

"I…"

"Nah, she's rather be with me!" Another merman cackled.

"No way! You're as ugly as a barnacle!" somebody else argued.

Suddenly the whole pod were snapping at each other.

"SILENCE!" Arroyo yelled, silencing everyone.

"Is this my only option?" Nixie asked carefully.

"Yes." Arroyo said flatly. "Take it or leave it. Marry me, or leave."

Nixie knew she had no choice. Marry a merman and start a new life as queen of a pod, or wander the oceans as a lone mermaid and probably die eventually.

She took a deep breath.

"I accept your offer, King Arroyo." Nixie slid herself off the rock, and took his hand as he lead her to the lake where her new home would be.

From then on, her lost memory filled with new replacements as King Arroyo arranged a wedding under the of waterfalls, cliffs and valleys of Freshwater Falls Island.

**Okay, I guess this part is what the narrator would say at this point of the story.**

_Over a long period of time living with these mermen, Nixie's troublemaking, mischievous personality died away and she became depressed and bored with her life as she grew older._

_Lyla and Sirena were long gone from her memory, in fact she didn't know or remember them at all. Neither did she recall Zac, nor Rita, or even Cam. Nothing was left in the space of her mind that had locked in the hurt and devastation of Cam's betrayal with the trident._

_She didn't remember living with the pod on Mako, she didn't remember being cast out. Nixie didn't remember getting legs, in fact nowadays she was convinced she would dry out if she got out of the water._

_She didn't remember her seventeenth birthday, or any birthdays she'd experienced before that. Nixie had completely shut out her old life and began with the new, the bad feeling she'd had about this long since faded._

_The island of Freshwater Falls was beautiful, a freshwater lake full of colourful sea life, high cliffs and crashing waterfalls, with lots of underground caves and tunnels half filled with water so that you could swim but come to the surface to open doors and unlock chests and other things._

_Nixie was now known as Queen Nixie. She roamed the island in a dignified way, now robbed of her playful, immature personality, and wore seashell jewelry, with white flowers in her long dark hair and a silver crown on her head embroidered with white and black pearls._

_Arroyo had noticed her moon ring with fear, realising she was formerly from a mermaid pod. Those moon rings had a moonlight catching blue stone in them that could only be found deep in the rocks of a mermaid's cave, and were capable of healing as well as the opposite._

_The first night Nixie slept in the underground caves underneath the lake, Arroyo slipped off her moon ring after dark and put it in one of the treasure rooms Nixie didn't know about._

_If Nixie knew where to find that stone, she could lead Arroyo and his pod to her home cave so that they could take it and create a new trident. King Arroyo and his pod were descended from the mermen that had warred against mermaids in the past, and tried to take over a sacred island named Mako but failed after one of them took the mermaid's side._

_Now, sensing that the trident had been taken out and destroyed a month ago, Arroyo knew it was time to go back and begin the war for Mako once again, and with Nixie's help now that her memory was gone._

_After noticing the unique design on Nixie's moon ring, he realised she was from the Mako Island pod. As the king, Arroyo had the power to see visions of the past. If Nixie hadn't lost her memory then he definitely would have sent her away, but if she could no longer recall any allies back home, he could use her against them and use magic to take back a little of her knowledge that would tell him where to find the blue moon crystal in Mako's caves._

_Arroyo had a small crystal of his own, embedded in the middle of his golden crown. The colour and magic was faded, because it had been lying on the ocean floor for thousands and thousands of years until he found it miles from his homeland on a swim. It had little power, hardly any for a merman king ready to conquer the oceans like his ancestors had meant to 1000 years ago._

_Each night Arroyo would smile of his plan and in the morning, pleasantly refer to Queen Nixie that nothing was going on. She never seemed suspicious, but neither did she take it smoothly. Sometimes the beautiful mermaid would swim around the reefs surrounding Freshwater Falls Island alone, isolating herself from the pod. Arroyo would watch from a distance in fascination, and at times, be convinced he loved her for who she truly was._

**AN: Please review! I need to know what you think! I enjoyed writing this chapter and tried to get as much in as I could. Hope you liked it. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thought I might start off this chapter with some Lyla/Zac :) Hope you like**

**Disclaimer - I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

Lyla took a deep breath before heading up to Zac's house.

She opened Zac's garage door to find Cam in there, arguing with Zac on the bed.

"Can you just leave? I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now!" Zac was saying to Cam repeatedly while his ex best friend kept protesting.

"You don't get it Zac!" Cam argued. "I'm not power hungry anymore, I swear!"

"Oh, another one of your lies, eh? I just told you I'm NOT IN THE MOOD!" Zac shouted back.

"What could possibly be wrong in your perfect fishy life?" Cam retorted. "Try living mine, it's hell."

"Get out before I make you, Cam!" Zac yelled at him. "I never invited you over here anyway. I do have problems. Just not like the one you have in your head! Lyla's here, so stop making a scene. I gotta talk to her, it's important."

"Evie ought to be here. You two are such lovebirds!" Cam snorted, seeing Lyla walk in hotly.

"No way." Lyla interrupted, blushing slightly, but shaking it off determinedly. "We have a big problem right now, we don't want you to ruin it further than you already have."

"What have I ruined?" Cam demanded.

"Just ask Nixie." Zac answered, as Lyla shoved Cam away and sat in his place next to Zac on the bed.

"Where is Nixie?" Cam frowned in concern.

"Nixie's gone, so why don't you go die in a hole because it's all your fault." Lyla spat at Cam, with hatred in her eyes.

Cam cowered at the mention of Nixie's name. His expression softened, and he backed out of the room guiltily.

"That's right, get out of my house!" Zac yelled after him, slamming the door shut.

"I'm sorry, this wasn't a good time to come," Lyla began.

"No, no, it's fine, really." Zac said.

Lyla nodded slowly and continued, "I just thought maybe we could search for Nixie together, you know, as in alone together, out on the reef." Lyla turned to Zac hopefully as he came back over to sit close to her.

"Yeah, but I uh…" Zac scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I er, have plans."

"With Evie." Lyla said. She nodded her head in understanding and got up.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I just - " Zac said quickly.

"No, no, it's okay." Lyla assured him, fake-smiling. "She's your girlfriend, another time for us, maybe."

"Yeah…" Zac answered, his smile fading as he watched her leave the house, folding her arms around herself and sighing.

"Oh, Lyla." Zac whispered to himself, walking slowly back inside and sitting down again.

**XxXxX**

Heading back to the Ocean Cafe, Cam frowned, feeling very unhappy. What happened to Nixie? Did something bad happen to her? Did she die?

Suddenly feeling sick to his stomach, Cam staggered into the cafe and into a chair, and ordered his favourite blueberry pancakes, even though it wasn't breakfast time.

"Anything else?" David asked him.

"No, but could I ask you something?" Cam questioned.

David leaned closer.

"What's happened with Nixie? Do you know?"

"Oh, that." David answered. "She apparently ran away, a couple of days ago."

A wave of guilt washed over Cam and he ran out the door without replying.

**XxXxX**

Lyla dove into the water off Zac's pier and headed to Mako to join Sirena.

Surfacing beside the blonde, Lyla smiled weakly.

"You alright?" Sirena asked her.

"Oh, no, I'm fine, it's nothing." Lyla assured her, staring back on to land where Zac's house was in far away view among the other houses.

"I'll search behind Mako and beyond, you can go around the sides of the island." Sirena decided. "We can meet back here. Sounds good?"

"Yeah, let's do it." Lyla nodded, and swam off to begin west of Mako.

That night, after finding no trace of Nixie anywhere, Sirena and Lyla lay next to each other in the moon pool, swishing their tails.

"I can't believe she's gone." Sirena burst into tears. Lyla comforted her, though not feeling any better inside herself. "We were like sisters, the three of us."

"You two were." Lyla said sadly.

"You were once we got cast out." Sirena reminded her. "Then, we learned to get on with each other, and it was great."

"It was." Lyla agreed. "But I've always been the odd one out anyway."

"Well, don't let go now, will you?" Sirena asked nervously.

"Of course I won't." Lyla answered. "Let's get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay." Sirena murmured, snuggling down and pressing her face to the side of the cool, damp rock. Then she sat up again. "Lyla?"

"What?" Lyla replied sleepily.

"I hope Nixie comes back one day." Sirena whispered.

"We all do."

**AN: Next chapter will be the big time skip! Don't go away! I promise I'll upload fast :) Review PLEASE! :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer - I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

**READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE BEFORE YOU BEGIN READING. OTHERWISE YOU WON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING. :)**

**Author's note:**

**Okay, so now it's 10 years later. All the main characters are aged 26 - 27. So the're all adults. The pod's still gone (BIG SIGH) so the characters are trying to make a living on land.**

**Sirena is married to David and has a four year old daughter named Brooke. Brooke is small and has Sirena's blonde hair and David's brown eyes. (Does he have brown eyes?) David is now in on the secret. ;)**

**David and Sirena have a house of their own, but Sirena still calls Mako her home. :) Sirena now has a big singing career and released a couple of albums, though not quite famous yet. David quit his job at the Ocean Cafe and Carly now owns it, and called it "Carly's."**

**Zac and Evie are engaged. Evie was the one who proposed, being impatient that Zac still hadn't said anything and they were 26 already. Zac still has strong feelings for Lyla, but remained with Evie.**

**Lyla is just recovering from being upset they are engaged. Lyla is still single. Evie still works at the Ocean - (sorry Carly), CARLY'S, and Zac does now as well, but at the moment Evie is away for a while (I don't care where, anywhere as long as I can work on my Zac/Lyla parts of the story while she's out of the way) and Lyla is looking for a job. (HINT! HINT! Zac says)**

**Rita is 48 years old and is aging a bit and is still single but found a new man who started working at SunCoast High, (yes she still works there) and isn't sure if she should make a move yet. Rita has shorter hair now, about shoulder length. Poseidon (the cat) has died of old age but Rita has a new, ginger female kitten named Sandy.**

**Cam works at a small fish and chip shop out by the pier. He is still single, and never shows an interest at pretty girls anymore, ever since Nixie's "death" was confirmed he was unchanged and quiet as a mouse.**

**So - everyone is convinced that Nixie is dead and still mourn for her whenever they see a cheeky dolphin or a bowl of prawns or a story about a turtle and a crab (see various Mako Mermaids episodes) - and sometimes chat about her wondering if she really died or is just somewhere really far away...**

**XxXxX**

For hours Lyla sat on the cold, pale beach wrapped up in her depressing black coat miserably watching the icy waves crashing on to the shore and streaming out to Mako far east.

It was winter; a very long winter in Lyla's perspective, and she was beginning to get tired of staring out at the white mist settling around Mako Island and waiting for the water to warm up so that she could stretch her arms and tail whilst swimming in the deep blue waters.

Other days she curled up underneath blankets in Rita's grotto, that had long since become musty and deserted as the magical feel had disappeared not long after Sirena had left to live in David's house, Poseidon had died, and Rita had become more focused on her work and teaching.

Lyla felt alone and sad, with Nixie gone many years ago, Sirena married David and settled in with her own life and even a child, and Zac and Evie engaged as well as also being locked up in their own worlds. It was like everyone had given up on getting the pod back and making life be the way it used to be again.

Right now, Lyla felt more isolated than ever, stroking cold white sand on a lonely beach, where none of the land people bothered to come as it was freezing weather. Lyla felt like a land girl now, with the days of swimming in the ocean as a mermaid getting more and more scarce all the time.

Lyla stopped digging her toes into the sand unhappily and stood up on the beach curiously as she noticed motion underneath the surface around Mako, followed by rows of whooshing bubbles streaming across and rippling the water.

Her mouth dropping open, Lyla knew that the only thing that could do that to the water, was a pod full of merpeople. Had the Mako Island pod returned? Did the mermaid council decide it would be safe now?

Lyla stuffed her gloved hand in her pocket, still shivering from the winter air, and pulled out the cell phone Rita had given to her to use back when she was about 18, and dialed the number of Sirena and David's home phone.

Lifting it up to her ear nervously, Lyla waited for a reply.

"Hello?" Little Brooke answered the phone.

Lyla smiled upon hearing the reply of Sirena's adorable four year old daughter.

"Oh, hi Brooke! It's Aunt Lyla." she said into the phone.

"Aunty Lyla!" Brooke said excitedly. "I can swim so fast in the pool now. Mommy said I can go in the ocean when I can go as fast as her. I wanna swim with you, too! Can we? Can we?"

"That's great, Brooke." Lyla answered the girl, brushing back her hair nervously and looking back out at Mako. "Of course, I'm sure we can arrange something but can I speak to your mother for a moment?"

"Okay." Brooke's excitement died down and she passed the phone to Sirena.

"Sirena?" Lyla said into the phone.

"Hey Lyla! It's been a while. What's up?" Sirena greeted her friend.

"Sorry to interrupt anything, but-" Lyla was cut off as Sirena called for David to come downstairs. Lyla heard shuffling and quick conversation on the other end of the line as Sirena asked David if he could stay home with Brooke while she went to the cafe to get some food.

"Sorry about that Lyla." Sirena finally answered cheerfully. "Hey, I'm going down to the cafe now to pick up some seafood for dinner, I can meet you there if there's something important to talk about."

"Sure." Lyla relied gratefully. "I'll meet you there in fifteen."

Lyla turned off the phone and looked out worriedly at the constant rippling waves surging around Mako before picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder before heading away from the beach to collect some money from her bedroom at Rita's.

**XxXxX**

Lyla let herself into the house where she could smell food cooking further up the stairs. She slipped her boots off and headed up to greet Rita.

Rita was busy cooking a pot of chicken, working hard and brushing back the grey streaks in her hair.

"Hi Lyla." She smiled as Lyla walked in. "If you're here to stay for dinner, I have enough to cook some more."

Lyla shook her head, ignoring the warm flavoursome smell.

"I think I'll hang around Sirena and David's house tonight, I need to talk to her about something."

Rita grinned teasingly. "You're 26 years old, Lyla, you ought to buy your own house."

"Mako's my home, plus I have nobody to live with." Lyla muttered, suddenly thinking of Zac, who was getting married to Evie in a matter of months.

"Oh well, I have company tonight anyway." Rita called after Lyla pleasantly as she headed up to the bedroom she kept her "land" things in.

Lyla stopped.

"What, that man teacher from SunCoast high again? You're getting a little old for romantic dates."

Rita laughed and shook her head.

"I'm 48! Not too old yet!"

Lyla raised her eyebrows as Rita continued.

"No no, Derek doesn't like chicken. I was talking about Sandy. She loves chicken, don't you?" She picked up the small orange kitten on the floor beside her and cuddled her.

"You act like Poseidon reincarnated into that scrap of a kitten." Lyla muttered to herself, continuing up the stairs.

She entered her room and rummaged in one of the drawers under her desk for the twenty Rita had chucked her yesterday when Lyla complained about being broke.

"Get a job." Rita had told her in exasperation.

Several land jobs had crossed Lyla's mind, though the free space in the clothes section of Carly's cafe (Ocean cafe ) that Evie had left behind during her departure to some place overseas that Lyla didn't really care about at all.

The reason, of course, was that Zac also had a job there now David had quit and made a living with Sirena, and the working hours were the same. The thought of seeing Zac every day made Lyla shiver with excitement.

Meeting Zac regularly had changed significantly after he'd graduated from land school and moved to live in Evie's apartment with her.

Lyla was beginning to feel that their connection was fading, a lot. Occasionally they'd come across each other on the reef during the summertime or bump into each other on the beaches close by to the cafe, but that seemed to be it.

Lyla finally uncovered the money from underneath a pile of clothes in the drawer, and slammed it shut before running back down and out the door to meet Sirena at the cafe.

**AN: Did you like this? What do you think Lyla saw out by Mako? :D Review to tell me if I've done up the new generation well or not. Thanks for reading, next chapter soon :)**

**-MaryKCL123**


	5. Chapter 5

**Enjoy this next chapter:) **

**I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

Sirena walked down the road toward Carly's Cafe, pausing for a few moments to glance at the fish and chip shop beside the beach. Cam's silhouette bobbed around in the window passing customers bags of takeaways. Sirena shook her head and continued up the the cafe where Lyla would be waiting for her.

She entered the cafe and scanned the room for Lyla.

To the right, Carly packed boxes of food and drink into the cool room while some of the other employees served orders at the small tables crowded around the empty stage.

To the left, Sirena found Lyla who was contentedly chatting to Zac in the corner.

"Zac!" Carly squealed as she accidentally dropped a tray of smoothies all over herself.

Zac looked up from Lyla and his face fell as he had to leave Lyla to help clean Carly up. Once he had gotten to the other side of the room, Sirena picked her way toward her friend.

"Hey." she grinned at Lyla, who looked on at Zac in disappointment. She quickly turned upon hearing her friend and spun around.

"Sirena, hi." Lyla's pained expression turned to seriousness. "Come over here." she pulled Sirena closer to her in the corner. "I saw something."

"Huh?" Sirena was confused. "Something of what?"

"Something of… our pod. Or another pod. Whatever. A pod! Of merpeople!" Lyla stammered.

"Were they over by Mako?" Sirena asked in concern.

Lyla nodded repeatedly.

"Well, let's check it out. Oh Aquata… It's been so long, like…" Sirena stopped, and frowned as she tried to think.

"Ten years?" Lyla didn't take any notice of the people nearby staring at her after she'd been talking so loud. Hurt suddenly appeared in her eyes. "Have I been the only one thinking about if there could be hope? That the pod could come back?"

"No, no, Lyla, I'm sorry." Sirena's blue eyes glistened with tears. Lyla looked into them and was instantly reminded of the ocean. Was Aquata staring at her out of Sirena's tear? Not really.

The cafe was getting quite hot now, despite the cold wind outside and Lyla slipped off her coat.

"Well, we should remember that it might not be our own pod. It could be another." she said to Sirena.

"I understand." Sirena answered, trembling. "But Lyla, what if something bad's going to happen?"

"We don't know that for sure." Lyla mused while Sirena texted David what was going on.

"Let's go check it out," Sirena said, brushing back her hair and turning off her phone. "I'll drop the dinner at home for Brooke and Davey and then we can take a swim over there."

Lyla stopped Sirena before she pulled away.

"Wait. What if all this has something to do with…"

Sirena's eyes widened.

"Nixie? I really doubt it, Lyla."

"She might not be dead!" Lyla broke out in sudden tears. "Why am I the only one that sees that? Why am I the only one that realises that we shouldn't be settling in to live the rest of our lives on land, what if the pod will come back? You'll lose David, maybe even Brooke as well. If they return, I'll lose Zac. Nixie could be alive out there, who knows. Now why can't you come to your senses and realise that magic is still in the world?"

Sirena looked on at Lyla tearfully as her friend ran out of the cafe, taking a last glance at her, then Zac before diving into the sea and whizzing toward Mako.

Lyla ignored the freezing cold water bubble against her as she swam faster and faster until Mako was a short distance away. She immediately jolted to a stop and surfaced in the deep water whilst noticing figures up ahead.

**XxXxX**

Queen Nixie glided through the ocean close to the unfamiliar island and let King Arroyo take her hand and bring her up to the surface to show her Mako.

"This, Nixie, is the island that rightfully belonged to this pod's ancestors more than a thousand years ago. This generation, however, we have returned to claim it once again." Arroyo said, watching Nixie carefully as she fingered the white seashells weaved into her hair and frowned.

"I feel like I know this place, yet i am quite sure I have never been here before." she mused, studying the forests and rocks and beach leading up to the cone of the volcano.

"I'm sure you've probably never been here, there are lots of islands out there that are a bit like this." Arroyo assured her quickly.

"It's a volcano." Nixie continued, gazing at the island in interest. "Tell me more."

"I will once we get inside and empty it of those mermai - people who stole it from us, and have it as our own. There are more underwater chambers and passages underneath this island than the trees on the top."

Nixie stopped abruptly.

"Did you say... mermaids?" She waited suspiciously for her husband's reply.

Arroyo looked away awkwardly.

"What, like me? There are people like me here?" Nixie's eyes widened.

Arroyo pulled her back from her attempt to zoom away.

"Listen, Nixie." he muttered into her ear. "Whatever these mermaids say, you must not trust them or be on their side. They stole this island which is rightfully ours, and when I looked back in time, I saw that they destroyed the trident, which was our only way of winning it back. Don't talk to them, or at least avoid talking to them. They will do everything they can to get you on their side."

Nixie pulled her arm free of his tight grip and glared at him.

"I'm smart, Arroyo. You can count on me to stay loyal, alright?" she stared into his black, accusing eyes. Nixie always felt as if they stared straight through her, not into her true heart.

"Good."

Arroyo released the grip and let her swim off to join the other mermen. He watched her carefully as she ignored the other mermen and carried on exploring the waters surrounding Mako.

Dylan, otherwise known as Prince Dylan, glided through the water and near to Arroyo.

"Dad, don't tell me you still haven't told her!" Dylan frowned, watching his father continue staring at Nixie far ahead. He turned around and a scowl appeared on his face.

"If she finds out about her past, she'll never want to help us!" Arroyo hissed at his son, straightening the boy's crown on his head. Dylan pulled away and ruffled his brown hair back to the way it was.

"But dad, she's already getting depressed and bored with her life, since she doesn't know anything about what happened before the accident ten years ago. All this time, you've covered her eyes from what's really going on. She doesn't deserve it!"

"Listen, Dylan." Arroyo angered. "If you tell her ANYTHING-"

"I won't! Dad, I won't. You can trust me. I agreed with you from the start, it's just, I don't think a young innocent mermaid like her should have to live like this all her life. It was an ultimatum, not a choice, that she married you. She would have just wandered alone and died anyway if she hadn't made that decision. Do you think she even wanted this? What if-"

"Close that idiotic mouth of yours, Dylan!" Arroyo interrupted in fury. "I adopted you that day because I wanted you to be a worthy prince of a loyal pod! A merman to help carry out the plan to take back this island," he gestured to Mako before them, "that our ancestors lost, many years ago."

Dylan stared into his father's eyes bravely, his father's black gaze burning into his.

"You were just fifteen when you found me." he began steadily. "And stole me from my mother. My mother WANTED me, dad. You took me back to the pod out of greed. Another merbaby, the precious male of the species that occurs once in millions of chances, my mother knew she could raise me to be unlike the ones that killed mermaids in the past, with what they call the trident. She could've raised me as the first merman in centuries to not be selfish, greedy and hungry for power. But no. You stole me that night, and added me to your pod full of all those cousins and friends and allies of yours, or some land people transformed into our kind permanently by you, all together working to win back Mako once again. You tried to lie to me that I was truly your son, but I did find out in the end. And you know what? I'll bet the same thing will end up happening with Nixie."

King Arroyo broke his accusing stare and edged back, sinking his shoulders into the water.

"If that is your opinion, then I don't think you should be calling me your father." he began after a long minute, "If this is what you believe to be true, then you don't belong in this pod any longer."

Dylan's mouth dropped open.

"You're casting me out?!"

Arroyo nodded, expressionless.

"Yes. Go, leave, betray anyone else who comes your way, I no longer need you."

"Fine!"

Arroyo ripped Dylan's crown off, and twisted and fiddled with the blue stone until it came out. He threw the rest of the crown away, into the blue depths.

"Go!' he yelled.

Dylan hit the king hard with his strong blue tail and dived down into the water, whizzing away without a last glance.

"And don't come back! Ever!" Arroyo yelled after him.

**XxXxX**

Lyla watched, horrified as thousands of mermen crowded around Mako, frightening nearby dolphins and scaring the fish away.

Sirena surfaced behind her, still sniffling.

"Lyla, I'm really sorry!" she sobbed, clambering on to the rock beside Lyla.

"Forget it." Lyla whispered. "Look!"

Sirena gasped and covered her mouth at the sight.

Mermen of all ages, sizes and builds penetrated the island. Some swam around the shallows, observing the island. Others were underneath the surface, scoping out the place for underwater caves. A lot, including the King with dark hair and a golden crown, dragged themselves on to shore.

Sirena and Lyla hurried closer, staying hidden.

Lying with his tail on the sand with some others, the king took off his crown, and pulled out a piece of blue moon crystal, tossing it to the others.

"Oh no!" Sirena hissed. "They're getting legs!"

"Don't look!" Lyla pulled Sirena down behind the rock. "They won't have clothes when they transform."

"Nope." Sirena pointed to a pile of clothes that looked like they had been stolen from the pier beforehand.

"Oh." Lyla sighed in relief.

One by one, the mermen used their powers on the king's stone. Once their legs appeared, they clambered up and pulled on shorts or pants from the pile, remaining shirtless.

"It's safe to look now."

Lyla and Sirena peered over the rock again and scanned the crowd to see what they were going to do.

"We have to stop them, they'll find the land entrance in no time, looking for the trident." Lyla urged.

"But the trident is destroyed now." Sirena frowned.

"Well are you just going to sit and let them find the moon pool cavern, dig up more crystal and make another one?" Lyla reminded her frantically.

Sirena's eyes widened in fear.

"Once they realise the pod is gone, they'll just stay here forever!" she trembled.

"Well we have to stop them. Now. Once we get on land, I'll call Zac and Rita." Lyla said briskly, pulling herself off the rock, Sirena behind her.

Sirena was about to slip back into the water when she looked up again at the mermen on Mako's beach.

"LYLA!" She screamed, toppling over into the water with a splash.

The noise startled the mermen and they saw the two mermaids.

"They've seen us now!" Lyla hissed angrily. "What the hell is it?"

"NIXIE!" Sirena screamed.

"What do you mean, 'Nixie'?!' Lyla tugged Sirena over to join her and they swam closer to shore where the mermen looked at them suspiciously.

**XxXxX**

"Get over here!" Arroyo yelled at the two unfamiliar mermaids in the water.

"What's going on here?" Nixie wondered, dragging her tail out of the waves and sliding herself on to the beach. Somehow she felt skilled at it, like she'd done it many times before. Nixie shrugged it off and grabbed the blue crystal from another merman just gained legs.

She was about to use her powers on it but more cries from the pair of mermaids in the water echoed out to her.

"Nixie! How are you alive?! What are you doing?!" the mermaids shouted, swimming closer.

Lyla and Sirena dried off on shore and tried to evaporate the water on Nixie's tail.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Nixie spat at them, shoving their hands away. "I'll dry up and die if you carry on like that!"

"Nixie, where have you been!?" The one with fair skin and light blond hair asked worriedly.

"How do you know my name. Who are you?!" Nixie demanded. The girl tried to run over and hug her but Nixie pulled away.

"Do I know you?" she growled.

Sirena jumped back and Lyla stared at Nixie in horror.

"Nixie, I hardly recognize you! You look so…" Lyla trailed off and into Nixie's eyes. They were still blue, but there was something missing. The sparkle, the glee, the jovial, hilarious, mischievous shine to them was gone.

Her face was pale, the life and laughter gone leaving dark circles underneath her eyes.

The cheeky smile gone. Her dark, dark hair, now so long it ended at her waist, was unusually weaved with creamy white seashells and shiny black stone, and a tiara made of pearls.

Her moon ring… it was gone without a trace. Instead, a silver wedding ring tightly fitted on her ring finger, that daunted Lyla and Sirena increasingly as they stared at it.

"Is there a problem?" Arroyo asked.

"Yes!" Lyla glared daggers into him, not at all faltering from his own black gaze. "What have you done to Nixie?!"

"Who are you and how do you know me?" Nixie stared at the mermaids blankly, finally growing legs after being on the beach for so long. To her surprise she already had clothes on.

That saves stealing more from that poor man, she thought, standing up next to Arroyo in a purple tank top and black denim shorts.

Lyla pulled Sirena away to speak with her privately.

"This is bad!" she whispered in terror. "She doesn't remember us anymore!"

"And she's on their side." Sirena added, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Wait - " Lyla's eyes widened. "Do you think she remembers… Cam?"

"How would we know?" Sirena replied.

"He's the reason she disappeared!"

"It's been 10 years…" Sirena shook her head, unsure.

Lyla pulled out her phone and dialed Zac's number.

"I'll get the others over here, before the worst happens." she decided nervously.

XxXxX

Zac was lounging around in him and Evie's flat, thinking about nothing in particular until he felt his phone vibrate. He picked it up and answered Lyla.

"Hello?" he said.

Cam sneaked up outside and peered through the window in Zac's room and watched him talking on the phone curiously.

"Oh no! That's really bad, I'll get him and be there as soon as I can, okay?" Zac said.

Cam wondered what was going on. Sneaking up and seeing what Zac was doing in his house was a hobby of Cam's, it seemed to make him feel better to hear his old best friend's voice that hadn't spoken to him for over ten years now.

"God, this is going to be tough." Zac continued. "It never crossed my mind that she wasn't actually dead. Is there anything that could bring Nixie's memory back so that she doesn't help them?"

Cam dropped from the window, clutching the sides of his head. He gasped, suddenly feeling as if all the air had been knocked out of him. Everything was spinning, hope shining bright.

NIXIE.

NIXIE.

NIXIE.

Her name, her face, rang and flashed in his mind. She wasn't dead. She wasn't dead. She was ALIVE.

**AN: I tried to make this chapter as long as I could to get as much as I could in there! Hope you enjoyed this bit. :) Next Chapter won't take too long...**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I was going to write the next chapter next week instead, but couldn't stop myself. Once again, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mako Mermaids. **

**XxXxX**

**Beach of Mako Island**

Nixie broke her icy glare at the pair of mermaids standing up next to Arroyo and again attempted to use her powers on the blue crystal. Nothing was happening.

"Ugh!" she slapped the ground with her tail and trying again. "Why the hell isn't this thing giving me legs?"

"Because you already HAVE legs. Dry yourself." Lyla said irritably, still fumbling with her phone, texting Rita messily.

Sirena stepped aside and frowned at Arroyo.

"Why won't you explain this? What did you do? Nixie was a very special friend to us and you've brought her back hardly herself!" she said fiercely.

Arroyo ignored Sirena and picked up the moon crystal in exasperation, stuffing it in his pocket.

"Nixie, just dry yourself then! Grab some clothes from over there and come with us. There is something we have to do on this island right now."

Nixie warily steamed the water off her tail and legs appeared. To her surprise, she already had clothes on.

Sirena nudged Lyla.

"Those are the clothes she wore when she ran away, and look, her hair is in a ponytail again."

Nixie frowned in confusion and stood up to examine her purple tank top and black shorts.

"Why have I…"

"Um, I don't know! Now we have to go! Now!" Arroyo pulled her arm and began leading her up the slope toward the forest.

"No!" Lyla and Sirena yelled in unison, motioning their arms to throw Nixie and Arroyo back.

Arroyo got to his feet in anger and ran toward them.

"Come on Zac, get over here." Lyla muttered under her breath, looking nervously out to sea.

**XxXxX**

**Zac and Evie's Flat**

The second Zac had finished his quick thoughts on what he would do next, he heard distinctive cries and shuffles against the wall outside the front door.

"You eavesdropper!" Zac shouted furiously, kicking open the door to find Cam clutching himself tightly and rocking on the ground, eyes wide. "It's been 10 freaking years since I thought you'd be over that and here you are again!"

"It's been 10 freaking years since you spoke to me without at least one swear word to describe me in each sentence." Cam whimpered quietly.

"We're adults, Cam, ADULTS!" Zac snarled. "Haven't you lost your miserable immaturity at all yet?!"

"Haven't you given up your way of sounding like a pissed off bear whenever you speak to me yet?" Cam mumbled.

Zac finally breathed slowly and calmed down.

"Well, if you don't want to be a closed up little mouse with no belief in happiness anymore, you gotta come with me. Right now." Zac told Cam, locking the door behind him.

"Nixie's alive…" Cam wailed unhappily as Zac tried to get him to stand up.

"And if she meets you again, she might get her memory back." Zac informed him.

"Why me?" Cam's voice rolled uncontrollably.

"Uh, you're the reason she swam off on her own and disappeared, remember?" Zac replied sarcastically. "I mean who couldn't remember that scruffy blonde hair, the goofy grin, the -"

"Shut up!" Cam interrupted, coming to his senses and standing up. "I'm ready, okay?"

"Good." Zac said gladly, zipping up his own jacket. "Take your boat to Mako, I'm swimming." He shot his ex friend a sort of half smile and left.

Did Cam just see something in Zac's brown eyes as he ran off, looking back at his ex best friend a fraction of a second before climbing over the flimsy wooden fence and leaping into the water?

It was a spark, almost friendly, a spark Cam hadn't seen in those eyes since before the betrayal back when they were young, best friends…

Cam shook it off, wondering who he was kidding thinking that Zac believed the truth, that he wasn't power hungry anymore.

Cam just wished he could move on, but the incident from that full moon lit night haunted him so often it felt like a rock in his stomach, too big to exit, too small to dissolve into nothing and leave him alone...

**XxXxX**

Nixie tried to follow Arroyo, but he held her back and told her to remain there. He approached Lyla and Sirena, not the slightest bit cautious, holding his stone in the air as a threat.

"You can't defeat us," Lyla growled. "We are going to defend our island like any other worthy pod would, to keep it safe from you and your group of useless mermen. You are nothing like your ancestors, I can tell." she paused to screw up her face point at a bunch of Arroyo's mermen in the water snorting, laughing and picking their noses.

"Oh yeah?" Arroyo stepped closer, not intimidating the two girls as well as he would have liked. "Where is your pod, then. I'd like to meet the leader, and the council, so that they can tell me and my people that this place is occupied."

Lyla edged back, glancing at Sirena then looking up at him coldly.

"The rightful owners of this island are away," she stopped herself, "temporarily."

"Oh?" Arroyo folded his arms, raising his bushy black eyebrows in calm surprise.

"But - We - Me, and my friends," Lyla went on, gesturing to Sirena beside her and then out at the water, "will tell our pod about your unexpected arrival, and they will come back and stop you."

Arroyo shifted his weight, still holding their stare cooly.

"Well, from what I recall, there are exactly 587 mermaid members of the Mako Island pod. I know," he gestured proudly to himself, "obviously because I am a leader of a pod myself. And 587 mermaids with tiny little moon rings, I'm terribly sorry to ask, is how much defense against 72400 mermen that by next month, will have a decent amount of tridents thanks to your generous little magic mermaid cave?"

Sirena forced back the hot tears in her angry blue eyes and creased her brow in helpless frustration as she struggled to keep herself from lashing out at the powerful man standing before her.

"You taking over Mako? Over my dead scaly body." she spat, clutching Lyla's arm to keep herself steady on her feet.

"Of course." Arroyo concluded pleasantly. "Over all your dead scaly bodies. Fine by me!"

He turned his back to them and led Nixie up and off the beach, following the other mermen who had also got themselves legs and were ready to split up in the forest to find the cavern underneath the volcano.

"We have to do something! Even when Zac and Cam get here, we can't stop all these mermen!" Lyla cried in anxiety.

Come on, we need to block the underwater entrance before those other mermen get into it." Sirena reminded her.

They both got ready to run back into the water, but Lyla stopped Sirena uneasily.

"Sirena?"

"What?"

Lyla bit her lip and tightened her black coat round herself, suddenly remembering how cold it was.

"I just wanted to apologize, for going off at you today. I realise that you do still care, and I want you to know that I really appreciate that." she said quietly.

"Oh… well of course. I couldn't forget the pod, Lyla. The possibility of everything going back to normal, you know I've been the one wanting it more than anyone." Sirena sighed. "The only problem is, we've lived as land people for so many years now that it just starts to become a little more important to keep life going, you know? I just hope you understand."

"I do." Lyla responded.

"Brooke is half mermaid so she isn't all bad!" Sirena added.

"I didn't mean her." Lyla said softly. "She's your daughter, both you and David deserved such a wonderful girl."

"Thank you." Sirena whimpered, hugging Lyla gratefully.

"Funny, all this time, I've been feeling so alone." Lyla murmured expressionlessly, almost to herself as Sirena embraced her. "Or maybe I am."

"You don't _have_ to." Sirena told her sympathetically.

"Yeah, maybe.." Lyla drifted off from her friend and entered the water with a quiet splash.

Sirena followed her quickly.

**AN: Leave a review if you liked it! Follow if you want more! Next chapter… I dunno, in between a few days and a week away. :)**

**And, hopefully I'll put Dylan into the next one, too. What happens if he takes an interest in LYLA?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Before I jot down the next chapter, I would like to thank Drinking Again for giving me great reviews, and I must say, writing an amazing Mako Mermaids story - 'Heritage', y'all gotta read it, it's amazing. :) On with the story.**

**Disclaimer - I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

**XxXxX**

Riding his boat out to Mako Island was something Cam hadn't done in 10 years. He assumed that Nixie and her friends would attack him if he ever set foot there again, so this was a first. They were actually asking him for help. Wow.

He kind of enjoyed the breeze whipping on his face, messing his hair around, but then again, didn't as it reminded him of the countless times he had driven his boat toward or away from Mako with the trident in the bottom of the boat - a mean smirk on his face as he developed his plan to get himself a tail next full moon.

Cam felt sick thinking about what might have happened between him and Nixie if he had become a merman. Probably a situation worse than the one occurring now.

As he neared the island, he shaded his eyes with his hands and squinted at the shore. Nobody was there, but there were a bunch of marks in the sand tails made sliding out of the water, as well a footprints as well heading up the beach and into the forest. And it was a lot of footprints, too.

Cam anchored his boat and got ready to jump out into the shallows.

Zac's head popped up out of the surface close by.

"Cam!" he called.

Cam turned to look at Zac, who bobbed around close to shore, glancing at the tail 'prints' and footprints.

"What do we do now?" Cam asked.

"I swam around beside the underwater caves," Zac informed him. "It's infested with mermen down there."

_Real mermen,_ Cam thought nervously.

"Didn't they notice you?"

Zac shook his head.

"I blended in. There are so many of them, they didn't realise I was there."

"So they've all got blue tails then?" Cam said.

Zac frowned.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Oh, I didn't know." Cam turned red.

Zac scoffed and swam closer to Cam's boat.

"Lyla and Sirena are down there too, blocking up the underwater entrance to the moon pool." Zac went on.

"How did they not get caught?" Cam wondered. "They have orange tails, they'll stand out."

"What is it with you and your interest in tail colour?" Zac said.

"I don't know." Cam answered, shaking his head.

Zac glanced at him skeptically and continued speaking.

"Well, they can turn invisible, remember? That's how they don't get caught."

Cam cursed himself for not remembering. His mind flashed back to many times the girls and Zac disappeared and ditched him on the spot to go hide himself when there was danger. He always thought it was terribly unfair.

Zac carried on. "So Lyla and Sirena are closing up the underwater entrance. When I found her, she told me to get you and then go and close up the land entrance. The merman's leader, and Nixie - "

Cam's face lit up, and Zac continued, "well, they are heading there right now so we have to be quick before they find it. The king has a blue stone that works the same as a moon ring. That's what he used to get himself and some others legs, and what he intends to use to open up the trident chamber. We must go there now to stop him."

"How will we do that?" Cam wondered.

"Well I can use my powers to go invisible, as well as use my powers to seal up the cave so that they can't get in. Lyla gave me her moon ring so that you can use it to go invisible as well."

"How would a moon ring work for a human?" Cam questioned.

"If you hold the moon ring and use the invisibility motion, then it will work on you. Apparently, merpeople have the power of the full moon inside them, as we have entered the moon pool on a full moon before as well and refuel our power when exposed to the moon after that; but moon crystals store power inside them which means that a human can also use it for magic. Keep in mind don't put the ring on your finger, you aren't a mermaid let alone a girl, and this isn't like the Lord of the Rings. You only need to do the motion whilst holding it." Zac dragged on while Cam nearly fell asleep in the boat.

"God Zac!" Cam groaned. "Stay away from Rita's books in the future, will you?"

"You're the one that asked for information." Zac muttered.

"Well let's go." Cam sighed. "They could have found it before you even finished your long magical explanation."

"Consider yourself lucky you get to even be involved in this." Zac replied flatly as Cam jumped out of his boat and pulled it to shore. "You ought to know that we don't exactly still trust you."

"It's been 10 years, Zac." Cam protested. "Like you said today, we're adults. You can trust me. I don't care about taking over Mako anymore. You have a much bigger threat right now, all these mermen could end up taking this island for themselves. I'm on your side in this battle."

"I hope." Zac answered, not sounding like he believed him.

"I just want to see Nixie again." Cam trembled. "I wish she hadn't gone and made this mistake because of me."

**XxXxX**

Lyla and Sirena had successfully crystallized the water in the underwater entrance to the moon pool, and then using Sirena's moon ring, expanded the rock around it, growing it across to make it look like there was no cave at all.

Unable to hold her invisibility any longer, Lyla swam away from the mermen's view and became visible again. Sirena did the same and they surfaced behind a rock.

"I'm glad we got that done." Lyla said breathlessly.

"Yeah, but what if Zac and Cam don't get to the land entrance before Arroyo and Nixie and those other mermen that went with them?' Sirena trembled.

"Don't worry, Sirena." Lyla reassured her friend. "Even if the mermen do find the trident chamber, the trident isn't there, remember? And it's not a full moon, so they can't make themselves fall into the cavern either."

"I'm still worried." Sirena replied anxiously. "Mermen will do anything for power."

"Nixie won't do anything for power." Lyla said firmly. "She just thinks that being on their side is right. We just need to get her memory back. Maybe Cam can do that."

"But if she gets her memory back, she'll remember the things Cam did." Sirena said in concern. "And he'll go back to being miserable."

"You don't want that?" Lyla raised her eyebrows and frowned at her friend.

"He's a person too." Sirena added. "It's been years, who says he still wants to take over Mako?"

"Whatever." Lyla muttered. "Let's, I dunno, go home."

**XxXxX**

Later, in the evening…

Lyla walked down the long pier alone, wondering what to do now. Talk to Zac and see if he'd closed up the chamber in time? Go back to Rita's and tell her that Sirena and herself had closed up the underwater entrance? Go for a swim? Eat something?

None of those options seemed appealing except maybe the last. Lyla felt really hungry. She'd have to ask Zac about the entrance tomorrow, Evie was arriving back from her overseas trip tonight, in fact it was already getting dark and she could have arrived by now. Her and Zac were going on a special date, despite Lyla's disappointment.

Shivering in the cold wind, the sky darkening more and more, Lyla again wondered what she should eat. She stuffed her hands in her pockets to feel for money, not in the mood to catch cold fish or other raw seafood from the ocean like normal.

Carly's cafe crossed her mind, a nice warm place to have a hot, cooked seafood dinner as well as other types of land food Lyla had come to like living on land for so long.

_Hot chocolate, _Lyla's mouth watered. She pulled the hood of her coat over her head, and started to run down the pier toward the cafe only to collide with somebody else.

The brown haired boy toppled over, completely unbalanced on his feet and thumped on the ground.

"I'm sorry, are you -" Lyla knelt down and slipped off her hood to see properly.

"No no, it's okay, I haven't had legs for long." The boy muttered quickly in a muffled voice, standing up quickly and shooting her a nervous smile.

Lyla frowned, suspecting something about this boy.

"What do you mean, you haven't had legs for long?" she demanded.

She looked him up and down. Shirtless, brown hair down to shoulders, shorts that looked like they were stolen from somebody's laundry basket.

"Uh.. nevermind, forget what I said." he shook his head, still looking unsure and wary. "I'm uh, Dylan."

"Are you new in town?" Lyla asked sarcastically.

"Yea - "

"I know you're a merman!"

Dylan jumped back a bit.

"What?"

Lyla sighed.

"I'm Lyla. I'm a mermaid. Now get back in the water and go home, this world is dangerous. You don't belong here." she said in exasperation.

"Please, don't get me wrong, I don't have a home." Dylan stammered.

"Call Mako your home then! Off you go! The war hasn't started yet." Lyla said in annoyance.

"Hey, wait," Dylan interrupted. "I'm not one of them. Not anymore. I don't want to take over Mako. I was cast out by the king."

Lyla's eyes widened.

"Do you know about the queen? Nixie?" she asked him worriedly.

"The reason I was cast out was because I protested that Arroyo shouldn't have lied to her all these years."

Lyla stared at him.

"Will you come and have dinner with me? Now? I think we have a lot to talk about."

"Uh, sure… Lyla." Dylan looked at her, a smile appearing on his face. _Lyla… _he thought to himself in sudden pleasure, realising how pretty she was.

**Author's Note: Yay! Just wait till they get closer ;) I hope you liked this chapter. Thanks for reading,**

**-MaryKCL123**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: A full on Lyla/Dylan/Zac chapter! I think this will be quite a long one :) Enjoy! Starts off with the cute Sirena and her family.**

**Disclaimer - Sadly, I don't own Mako Mermaids. I so wish I could...**

"Are you alright, Sirena? You seem nervous." David said in concern as he set out the plates of dinner on the table in front of her and Brooke.

"Yummy! I love lobster!" Brooke clapped her small hands and then reached for a glass of water.

"No, It's okay David, I'm fine, just…" Sirena trailed off and picked up her fork, staring at the lobster on her plate blankly.

"Is there something going on in the mermaid world that I should know about?" David asked.

"Only that there is a huge pod of evil mermen taking over Mako as we speak, along with Nixie!" Sirena burst out.

"Nixie? I thought - "

"Nixie's not dead, David!" Sirena cried. "She doesn't remember any of us though, and she's married to an evil king merman who's using her to help have Mako for himself."

"How about we talk about this after dinner?" David suggested in a low voice, glancing at Brooke and then back at his wife.

Sirena nodded, resting her head on her hands and barely picking at her dinner.

Brooke struggled to lift the glass of water.

"Brooke, sto - " David was cut off as the glass tipped over on it's side and spilt all over her.

"Oh no!" Brooke burst into tears, watching expectantly as her legs turn into a tiny orange tail.

Sirena forced herself out of her exhausted position and leaned over to help dry her daughter.

"It's okay, you're okay." she sighed under her breath, passing David a towel to wipe her up.

"Ask me to pass the glass next time, Brooke." David scolded distractedly, though still glancing at Sirena in worry as the older mermaid let her head slip down on to the dinner table, covering her tearful eyes.

**XxXxX**

Carly's Cafe

The sky was pitch black, it was very late at night.

Lyla led Dylan into the warm cafe, moving him along in front of her as not to have other land people stare at him and his unusual appearance that night.

"You ought to have gotten a shirt on as well." she muttered to him under her breath, ushering him to a seat at one of the more private tables at the back of the room.

Lyla pushed him into the chair and then sat down opposite him. The two stared at each other awkwardly for a couple of moments but the silence was quickly broken by Carly swooping in to take their order.

"Lyla, I haven't seen you around here in ages." Carly greeted Lyla quickly, whipping out her pad and pen and glancing at Dylan briefly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, could I just get the time quickly?" Lyla asked.

"Sure," Carly replied, glancing at her watch. "It's past ten at night, so you'd better eat quickly. We're closing soon."

Lyla took this moment to observe the dimly lit cafe - it did indeed not have many customers left.

"Thanks," she responded with a nod at the waitress, and then squinted at the menu. "Ok, I'll get the original seafood special and a medium hot chocolate as well."

Carly jotted down the order in a flash and then turned to Dylan quizzically.

"Oh, I won't have anything." Dylan dismissed, his brown eyes still resting on Lyla contentedly.

Carly nodded and turned around to head back to the room behind the counter, and once her disappearance was confirmed in Lyla's gaze she settled down to face Dylan.

"Sorry to change the subject we are meant to be talking about, Lyla, but can I ask you something?" Dylan asked shyly.

"What?" Lyla said briskly.

"Do you consider this…" Dylan trailed off nervously.

"We just met half an hour ago!" Lyla gasped.

"In that half hour I kind of decided something. I mean, well…"

"What…?" Lyla glared at him.

Dylan's face flushed red.

"Nevermind. It's nothing, forget it." he murmured.

Lyla shook her head.

"No, no, forgive me. Sorry, I guess I'm just not feeling the best right now." she admitted.

"How are things?" Dylan asked.

"How do you mean?" Lyla questioned.

"With Dad - Arroyo I mean, you know, taking over your home. Are you and your pod okay?"

"My pod, is um… away. At the moment." Lyla answered sadly.

"Why? Tell me what's going on."

"It's a long story... ten years ago a boy named Zac fell into our moon pool and became a merman. Our mermaid pod, fearing this would mean danger, left the island - leaving me and two others behind to make things right. We got legs and went on land to befriend him, and right when he started to trust me - us," Lyla corrected herself, "he discovered the trident in curiosity and went to get it. Me and my friends knew it was a dangerous and unpredictable weapon so we ended up revealing our secret to him in the process of trying to get it off him. After that he was very angry at us for lying to him so he broke our friendship.

"Later with the help of his friend Cam, he got the trident and used it against us. But then I got it off him and hid it. Then he ended up finding it again, and we fought over it but there was a flash and it knocked me unconscious. It took three moon rings to heal me, but their power ran out and he had to charge them again with the trident. Eventually I recovered, and after that he realised how dangerous the trident was so he locked it away again. But then, Cam disagreed and decided that he wanted to take over Mako himself and become a merman. He lied to one of my friends, who was Nixie,"

Recognition washed over Dylan's expression as Lyla continued, "and used her to help him get it for himself. Soon we figured out he lied, and the three of us together along with Zac, used our power against him and destroyed the trident. We thought it was a happy ending, but the day of Nixie's 17th birthday she swam away. We never saw her again until now, and she somehow lost all her memory of us and is on their side."

"That is a long story," Dylan breathed. "And I can tell you the rest."

"You know how this happened to Nixie?" Lyla gasped.

"Yes. I'll explain now." Dylan informed her, feeling kind of good when he noticed her smiling at him hopefully. Such beautiful blue eyes, soft wavy honey coloured hair…

"That's great. Please tell me, I really need to know what's happened." Lyla said after the brief quiet.

Dylan nodded and began, "Well, I was stolen from my mother by Arroyo, which doesn't make him my real father. He raised me in a pod of rogue mermen, lying to me that I was his natural son. Later I found out, and he still defined it as "a casual adoption." That's when I decided not to trust him anymore. So we lived in a huge lake with waterfalls of a beautiful island, though it had no moon pool, so we didn't have much power exept for the stone in Arroyo's crown but even that was hardly any power as it was extremely old and hadn't been charged with moonlight in years and years. There was also the stone in my crown but that was the same, hardly any power."

"On with Nixie?" Lyla requested hopefully.

Dylan nodded.

"Well anyway, so we lived in the amazing, beautiful place for a long time, until big machines from the human civilized land across the river between us started tossing rocks and dirt into our territory. Me, Arroyo and another merman were all together using our powers to throw one of the rocks back, but it accidently went flying the other way. We looked that way, and there was a young looking mermaid with brown hair sitting on a rock. The rock hit her head and she went unconscious."

"So that's how she lost her memory." Lyla whispered.

"Most of the pod had never seen a mermaid in their life, we believed they hadn't been seen for a thousand years. Some didn't even know what she was. Arroyo knew, of course, having known my mother and my sisters who lived alone -" Dylan's voice cracked as he said the words and Lyla held his hand in sympathy.

The feel of her skin against his sent a shiver through Dylan, but he continued, "Well, alone as in without a pod. Just fending for themselves. Anyway, Arroyo fell in love with Nixie the second he laid eyes on her, and when she woke up she had no idea about her past. Arroyo used his royal powers to look back in time and saw that she belonged the the Mako pod and had helped destroyed the trident - but of course he didn't tell her he knew this, instead he offered her a deal. She either had to marry him and be the queen of the pod, or leave on her own to probably die."

Lyla gasped in horror.

Dylan was about to go on with his explanation but Carly had arrived at their table with Lyla's order.

"Thanks." Lyla sighed breathlessly and tucked into her meal hungrily.

Once Carly was gone again, Dylan carried on solemnly.

"Nixie reluctantly accepted his offer, and married him. Overnight he took her moon ring away, and gave her a wedding ring to wear, and also a tiara of pearls. Lyla? You okay?"

Lyla was staring into space, a flashback screaming in her mind.

"Lyla?" Dylan nudged her.

"Nixie…" Lyla whispered, snapping out of her flashback. "Nixie.. I remember a time when she put on a silly crown in Rita's grotto. She was pretending to be…"

FLASHBACK

"_I'm queen of the sea!" Nixie cackled as she showed off a silver crown on her head. Sirena laughed and gave her a white dress. _

"_Here's your dress my queen!' she giggled in a funny accent. Nixie cackled and pranced around and strutted up and down in the silly costume._

FLASHBACK ENDED

"Who's Rita?" Dylan asked.

"Oh, she's another mermaid who looked after me, Sirena and Nixie when we were younger and still adjusting to land." Lyla said, still with a faraway look in her eyes. She quickly shook her head and averted her eyes to Dylan with a small smile.

Dylan grinned back at her.

Lyla looked away and sipped her hot chocolate happily.

"Hey Lyla?" Dylan asked.

"What?' Lyla replied.

"Could you… help me?"

"Help you what?'

"You know.. adjust to land I guess."

Dylan took a deep breath and waited for her reply.

Lyla nodded slowly.

"I suppose that would be okay." she finally responded. "I have been feeling kind of alone at the moment."

"I promise that you can trust me." Dylan assured her. "If you change your mind you can go ahead and ditch me. I'll understand."

"No." Lyla said. "I want to help you. Don't worry, it will be fine. You can count on me. I trust you."

"Thanks…" Dylan smiled at her genuinely, his big brown eyes sparkling as he gazed into hers. He held her hand, she gripped it back.

Out of nowhere, they leant forward, and…

Zac burst into the cafe.

"Lyla, Evie's flight was cancelled so I thought we could maybe - " he stopped dead at the sight in front of him.

Lyla's eyes widened and she pulled away from Dylan in horror. The look in Zac's eyes… the same look when he found out she was a mermaid so many years ago…

"Zac, wait!" she cried as he bolted out the door. She immediately rushed out, after him, leaving a confused Dylan still at the table.

"Ouch… Poor you." Carly commented, having seen the whole scene unfold. "Better clear up that table and leave soon, mate. We're closing in five minutes."

Dylan said nothing, staring at Lyla's half finished meal in disbelief. He looked up and realised he was the only customer left in the cafe. Carly came back and tossed him some keys.

"I'm going home. You can go ahead and lock up." she dismissed him, strutting out the door and shooting him a sympathetic glance before getting into her car and driving away.

Dylan frowned at the keys, unsure what to do with them, so he dumped them on the table and left out the back, leaving the door wide open and diving into the ocean.

**Author's Note: I really enjoyed writing this chapter! Next we will have some big reveals, surprises and maybe some Cam/Nixie. They will finally meet if everything goes to plan! Thanks for reading.**

**-MaryKCL123 (Note: I'm thinking of changing my pen name. So don't go "WHAT!" if it's different next time you see it.)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: I'm excited for this chapter even though I'm the one writing it! Enjoy :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mako Mermaids**

**XxXxX**

Lyla chased Zac down three streets, and he was still going strong. Lyla was finding it difficult to keep up. Zac was smart not to go in the water, Lyla was a faster swimmer than him with her experience, but he had the advantage of being more skilled on land.

"Zac, just let me talk to you!" Lyla cried.

Zac ignored her and sped up on his feet, heading for his house.

Lyla followed him breathlessly up the path but he was through the door before she could get in after him. She sighed, hearing the click of the door lock.

Without hesitation Lyla twisted her hand, using her powers to unlock it. She slowly let herself in and saw Zac in the kitchen pressing his forehead against the wall, his eyes squeezed shut. He flinched as he heard Lyla approach him.

"Zac…" Lyla whispered, unsure what to say.

Zac turned around and spoke to her facing the other way.

"You don't need to say anything. Okay?" Zac muttered, still avoiding her gaze. "You have every right to be with someone else. What we had was… nothing."

"No." Lyla answered firmly. "What we HAVE, IS something. But it's different from what you have with Evie."

Zac said nothing.

"You two are ENGAGED, Zac!" Lyla's voice cracked as tears rolled down her cheeks. "And she was the one who proposed. You had a choice. You didn't have to say yes."

"But I did." Zac mumbled. "And I do love her. But not in the way I love you."

Lyla let out a rush of breath but remained serious as she dragged up a chair and sat beside him.

"Do you remember those times back when we were teenagers?"she asked quietly.

"This is my point." Zac admitted. "Lyla, I'm never going to forget the times we swam together with the whales and the dolphins, the sea turtles, the fish. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere with my new life. You helped me with everything. You're the one mermaid, out of those three outcasts from Mako, that I got closest to. But now, everything has changed. We're adults. Nothing will ever be that magical ever again. Face it. We have to move on."

"No we don't!" Lyla cried. "This is why I'm feeling so alone! Why I've been making so many mistakes! We've got more problems with the magic world right now than we ever have, but everyone else just wants to grow old and go on with the lives we were never meant to live!"

Zac looked at the floor, saying nothing.

Lyla stared into his eyes tearfully. "Me and Sirena shouldn't be living our lives on land permanently. The pod shouldn't be living their lives away from Mako. And more importantly, Nixie shouldn't be forced to be living her life with a pod of bad mermen that are using her to take over Mako!" she stood up and stepped closer to him. "But if we don't do anything, these things will stay permanent, and all our lives will be miserable. None of this is meant to be!"

"I get the message now." Zac answered quietly. "I'm sorry. I'll help you to make things right, okay?"

Lyla sighed, not sure whether to be relieved.

"Now what happened when you and Cam went to close up the land entrance? You didn't get caught, did you?"

Zac bit his lip.

"About that, uh, it didn't exactly work out as planned." he muttered.

"What happened?" Lyla gasped.

"They have Cam." Zac said.

"What!?" Lyla cried. "How did it happen?"

Zac stepped away from the wall and sat down.

"Well, I was invisible, and so was Cam as he had your moon ring." he began. "We sneaked up to the entrance, but the ring was running out of power. Cam's invisibility was flickering."

Lyla nodded, starting to understand.

"And then…" Zac trailed off.

**FLASHBACK**

Cam and Zac sprinted through the forest, finally getting to the rock walls that led to the trident cave. They had to get there and block it before Arroyo and his mermen got there.

They stopped short seeing Arroyo and a bunch of other mermen with legs clambering over to the entrance with Arroyo's moon stone.

Cam's eyes widened as his eyes fell on Nixie. Ten years older and extremely beautiful, Nixie turned around in surprise. Cam hardly realised his invisibility wearing off, everything seemed to be going in slow motion.

He couldn't hear Zac's yells for him to run, or feel the tugging at his arm to retreat. Nixie's blue eyes fell on Cam, without the usual bitter recognition and hatred Cam had experienced from her younger gaze, a decade ago. It was all gone.

Then Arroyo whipped around, and his own black eyes filled with hostility at the blond land boy standing awkwardly a small distance away. Zac watched in horror, not daring to release his own invisibility.

A growl rumbled in Arroyo's throat and he ordered the other mermen to grab Cam. Nixie remained frozen in astonishment as Arroyo's men beat Cam to unconsciousness and hauled the boy onto their shoulders.

"Get him into the dungeons!" Arroyo roared. The mermen did as they were instructed. Nixie turned to face her husband, frowning.

"Why did you do that?" she asked. "He looked innocent to me."

"Nixie, he was spying on us. With invisibility from a moon ring." said Arroyo coldly. "There's no doubt he was trying to stop us getting to that cave." he gestured to the cracked outline of a doorway in the rock wall ahead.

"You don't know that." Nixie frowned.

"Nixie, I know." Arroyo cut off their conversation and walked off, leaving her standing by herself.

Nixie watched the other mermen and Arroyo drag Cam into the forest, heading down the island to the water.

Surely this land boy couldn't be evil? Or maybe he was. Nixie remained there for a long time, thinking silently. After that she finally walked back down the the beach and dove into the water.

As soon as she was gone, Zac released his invisibility and used his powers lift some nearby rocks into the air and drop them down in front of the entrance. He carried on doing this until it was completely hidden from view.

He left the island shortly after that, wondering how Nixie had become like this.

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Lyla finished listening to Zac's explanation. They were both silent for a few moments.

"Is Cam over his power hungry stage?" Lyla wondered.

"I think so." Zac answered. "He wanted to help us, so I think he's safe."

"We've got to save him!" Lyla straightened up. "Who knows what might happen. My own pod never knew about any dungeons underground of Mako."

"I think I heard them mention treasure rooms as well." Zac said. "That might be where they put your moon ring."

"Maybe." Lyla murmured. She stood up and walked toward the door. "Bye."

"Wait!' Zac called after her. She stopped walking and slowly turned around.

"Who was that boy you were with at the cafe?" Zac asked.

Lyla's lips came apart but no sound came out. "Uh.. that was…"

Zac listened closely. Lyla came to her senses. "His - his name is Dylan."

"What were you two doing?" Zac asked softly.

Lyla met his gaze and she looked at him for a few seconds before answering, "Just… talking. About Nixie. Nothing more."

"It was. A lot more." Zac completed her sentence. "You were about to kiss."

Lyla looked down. Zac reached down and used his finger to lift her chin up. He saw tears welling up in her eyes as her face came into view.

"How does he know about Nixie?" Zac asked, changing the subject for her sake.

"He's an outcasted merman from Arroyo's pod. He needed help." Lyla admitted.

Zac nodded slowly.

"I - I don't mind. So what. Maybe what we had was just a crush. Couple of swims, a friendly chat or two. Nothing more?"

"I won't accept that." Lyla whispered, tightening her jacket and glancing back at him once before standing up.

She walked to the door, not daring to look back. Just as she was about to let herself out, Evie burst in. Lyla jumped back, her eyes widening in immediate guilt.

Evie frowned, and squeezed in between Lyla and the door.

Zac leapt up and ran over.

"Evie! What are you doing here?! I thought - you texted me. You told me that your flight was canceled!" he stammered, looking at Lyla and Evie back and forth guiltily.

"I took the next one!" Evie spat. "It's past two in the morning, what are YOU," she pointed at Lyla, "doing here?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Lyla responded. "I was just about to leave."

"Well good." Evie snarled. "Learn to leave my fiance alone in the future! He's with ME. We are getting married! YOU have no part in this. Get out of our house."

"She told you, we did NOTHING!" Zac interrupted. "There's…" his gaze fell on Lyla. "Nothing is going on between her and me. She's with somebody else."

Lyla deeply wished she could object, but reluctantly, stepped outside into the freezing cold night, and Evie slammed the door behind her. Lyla put on her hood, and walked all the way back to Rita's. It took her over half an hour, at the slow pace she walked.

Once she arrived at the doorstep, she slipped her cold hand into her pocket and closed her fingers around her spare key. She let herself into the quiet house and locked the door behind her.

She carefully took off her boots and jacket and went up the stairs. The giant house felt cold, dark and empty; Lyla sensed Rita wasn't home, and she was alone here. All alone.

Lyla stumbled into the bathroom upstairs to run a hot bath even though the blurry time on her cell phone read 3:26 AM. She flicked on the light switch, and the heating, and the yellow brightness forced her eyes shut.

Lyla locked the door behind her and filled the bathtub with hot water. She gingerly lifted herself in, sinking herself into the steaming water.

She soaked in the water, waiting longer than usual for transformation, instead of the usual 10 seconds, it took 45 seconds. Being so sleepy, Lyla hardly realised this, and before she knew it she was drifting off.

**Author's Note: Did you like this? I did my best to make this last part with Lyla well written. Please review, sorry for the wait, and next chapter hopefully we'll be going over to Cam and Nixie!**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Read and enjoy guys! The Cam/Nixie is here!**

**I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

Cam woke abruptly, gasping for breath and thrashing to the surface of the freezing water around him. Shivering, he rubbed the salty seawater out of his eyes and felt around in the darkness.

He was in an enclosed room, half filled up with water. All of the walls, the roof and the ground were solid rock except for one of the walls which was made of bars like a jail.

Cam stood up in the water; the surface was just past his shoulders. He was still wearing his yellow T shirt and grey shorts, now completely soaked from being submerged in the water. His scruffy blonde hair was drenched and sticking to his head, and his face felt pale and cold to the touch.

Cam could already feel a headache coming on from dehydration and the freezing temperature, as well as the bruises on his forehead. He stiffly shuffled through the water, splashing his way to the bars.

He closed his shaking fingers around them gingerly and peered out through the cracks. All he could see were dark corridors, empty dungeons on the other side of the wall similar to his, stone doors and entrances to other rooms. No daylight, just dim blue lamps on the walls, not lighting up the path very well. Everywhere, there was water filling half the rooms. No dry land.

Unsure if it was day or night, Cam coughed into his arm, a cold overpowering him quickly. When he cleared his throat enough, he had a go at yelling for help. His voice echoed through the walls loudly, but nobody came.

Cam knew it was no use. There was probably nobody down here at all. He would just have to wait until somebody came. Cam sank back into the water fearfully, wondering if he would die down here due to lack or food, fresh water and warmth.

**XxXxX**

Lyla opened her eyes to find herself still lying in the bathtub, morning daylight streaming in the windows. The hot water had gone cold overnight, and goosebumps were up and down her arms.

Lyla groaned and rubbed yellow crust out of her tired eyes, slowly recalling the night before. She pulled out the plug, letting the still bathwater drain away leaving her tail unable to move around, sticking to the bottom of the tub.

Lyla reached up for a towel, and still sitting in the tub, wrapped it around herself, her teeth chattering. Eventually her tail disappeared and Lyla struggled to stand up.

She stepped out of the tub and nearly fell on the bench beside the sink. Lyla fought the urge to go back to sleep and absentmindedly splashed cold water on her eyes. She suddenly realised what she'd done, and got ready to fall down with her tail again but it didn't happen.

Lyla stared at her legs for over two minutes. Finally the transformation happened. Lyla fell back in surprise and frowned, wondering why on earth it took so long. She rubbed her scales dry once again and stood up and pulled on a bathrobe.

She peered at the bathroom mirror, and finding it blurry, rubbed the steam off it with her hand. The dampness did no transformation at all. Lyla stared into the mirror, groaning at her appearance.

Her hair was straggly and knotted and sticking up in every direction possible, her face looked pale and very tired. Dark circles ringed her eyes. Lyla decided to vow never to stay awake that late ever again.

Lyla was about to go collapse on the spare bed, but a knock on the door startled her. She considered not to answer it, looking like this but Sirena's voice called out from downstairs.

"Lyla? Where are you!" Sirena shouted.

Lyla moaned a grunt for a reply and dragged her feet down the stairs to see her friend.

Sirena gasped as Lyla staggered into the kitchen, looking like a zombie.

"Lyla, are you okay?" she asked in concern.

"I fell asleep in the bath, had a really late night. Don't worry, it's nothing." Lyla mumbled, stuffing her hand in the refrigerator, pulling out a crab and biting straight into the shell.

Sirena put her arm around Lyla sympathetically.

"Why don't you go and get into bed upstairs and I'll make you some hot soup." she offered gently.

"Thank you so much." Lyla whispered.

**XxXxX**

"Arroyo can you please do something!" Nixie pleaded, hearing Cam's wails getting louder.

"Why should I." Arroyo snapped. "He doesn't deserve to be able to get away with what he did."

"He didn't mean to threaten us!" Nixie cried. "I can't bear to hear him cry, all alone down in that horrible dungeon. He might not survive living in the water underground. He's a land boy."

"Shut up!" Arroyo whipped Nixie's face to the side in a slap. "You have no say in what happens to prisoners. That is my job. Your purpose is to be a loyal queen to this pod. Otherwise you will not be welcome with us any longer! Do you understand?!"

Nixie fought back tears, rubbing the red mark on the side of her face Arroyo had made with his hand. She crushed the desperate urge to retort back that she didn't deserve a husband that hurt her like this. Instead she said nothing and swam away tearfully.

Arroyo grinned at the harsh effects he'd inflicted on his wife. She wouldn't dare fight back now. Chuckling evilly, he swam down to observe the reefs that he would now own for himself.

**XxXxX**

The moment Nixie saw Arroyo disappear, she sneaked back to the underwater caves where the land boy's shouts could be heard.

She entered the dark tunnel and swam down the long corridor, surfacing every now and then to make sure she was going the right way. She smiled, opening her hand which was hiding a couple of pieces of fish. No doubt that poor boy would be hungry.

Cam froze on the spot as he heard splashing coming echoing down the corridor. Someone was coming! Knowing it was most likely one of those mermen come to taunt him or beat him again, Cam shrank against the back wall.

"Hello? Land boy?" Nixie called, swimming down the hall and peering into each of the dungeons to look for him.

Cam nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Nixie's voice. Nixie was here! He was finally going to see her again!

Cam leaped over to the bars, ready to burst out in a fountain of apologies and begs for forgiveness and requests that she love him as much as he did her.

Nixie heard lots of commotion going on in one of the dungeons far down the hall, at the end of the wall. She sped up her swimming and finally got to the boy's cage.

The moment Cam's eyes fell on Nixie, he was too overwhelmed and full of emotion to say anything. Nixie looked right back at him, slightly confused at his awe that had mixed together with joy and created a strange expression on his face.

"Nixie!" Cam whipped out of his silence.

"... How do you know my name? Lot's of people here seem to know who I am even though I've never met them." Nixie frowned, settling down to gaze at him curiously from the other side of the bars.

"But you did. A very long time ago." Cam responded.

"I've lived with Arroyo all my life." Nixie answered in confusion. "I think I did, anyway."

Cam shook his head unhappily.

"You hated me, Nixie. I betrayed you. How can you not remember? It's the reason you swam away ten years ago." He tried to remind her.

Nixie shook her head, looking at Cam's face and not recognizing a single feature.

"I've never seen you before, though. I don't hate you! I have never talked to land people before." she protested.

"Your memory has somehow wiped out!" Cam insisted. "Don't you remember anything apart from living with all these mermen?"

"No." Nixie replied. "I don't know what you are talking about. It's weird, two mermaids my age were on the beach saying I used to know them. One of them tried to HUG me even!"

"They are Lyla and Nixie. Your best friends!" Cam sighed. "This is awful. Arroyo has you living a life you are not supposed to be living. Why would you marry a merman that would lie to you so much?" Cam peered at her red cheek. "Is that a slap mark on your face?"

Nixie immediately turned away, covering the bruise with her hand.

"I married him because he told me I could either do that or leave on my own and fend for myself." Nixie recalled.

"What?!" Cam gasped. "Do you remember what happened before that?"

"No. Only that I woke up on a rock and my head really hurt." Nixie answered.

"Then that's how you lost your memory!" Cam realised. "Nixie, these mermen are bad! Arroyo knows that you used to live on Mako. He knows that you used to belong to a mermaid pod and that you've had leg before and that you helped destroy the trident. He probably even knows that I betrayed you. If you got your memory back right now you would slap me and leave me in here forever without food and water."

Hearing this, Nixie reminded herself of the fish in her hand.

"Take this." she offered him the handful of raw fish flesh.

"No, no." Cam pushed it away. "If you had your memory you would know that humans don't eat raw meat!"

"I'm sorry." Nixie blushed and tossed it away. "I'll try and bring you something better tonight."

"About what I just said?" Cam reminded her. "Arroyo has you fooled badly. You don't belong in his world and you don't deserve to be living your life with evil mermen. They are using you."

"I don't believe that!" Nixie defended. "If they didn't even like me then they wouldn't have looked after me for ten years."

"It's not about if they like you or not." Cam said solemnly. "They want to use you to help defeat your rightful mermaid pod."

Nixie tried to turn away, Cam reached out through the bars and gripped her shoulder. "You have to believe me! It's true. Arroyo doesn't love you."

Nixie swallowed the urge to burst into tears and whipped around to face him.

"I'm not believing anything until it's proven to be true. I'll come back tonight with cooked fish for you and we can talk some more about this. I'm not supposed to be here right now, Arroyo will be angry if he finds out I've spoken to you." Nixie dismissed Cam unhappily and swam away, leaving him alone in the dungeon.

**AN: Thanks for reading this chapter! Review and soon I will be back with another one. :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: So so sorry for the wait! I've been at school camp, so deprived of Mako Mermaids that I had to update as soon as I got back, lucky for you guys. Enjoy! I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

Sirena carried a bowl of soup into Lyla's room, where she lay in bed looking more weak than ever.

Lyla struggled to sit up under the covers as Sirena placed the warm bowl on her lap and sat down beside her.

"Lyla, I don't think you're sick just because of a late night." Sirena sighed, looking at Lyla anxiously. "It looks a lot worse than that."

Lyla squirmed on the pillow, pushing it down and trying to get comfortable.

"You're not going to send me to some stupid land doctor are you?"

Sirena scoffed.

"That's the last thing I would think about doing. This isn't like the sickness a land person would get after a late night in a cold bath. You look really awful. Worse than I've ever seen you before." Sirena said worriedly.

"Thanks a lot." Lyla croaked, dipping her spoon into the hot soup.

Sirena sat up, leaning forward to get off the bed.

"So," she said,"is there anything else going on that could be to do with all this - Arrghh!"

Lyla had accidently spilt all the soup on to the duvet and all over her and Sirena.

"Ow! It's hot!" Lyla complained, wiping her soaked arms on the blanket. "I'm sorry."

Sirena picked up the bowl and quickly wiped the stains on the bed with a cloth. Lyla sank back into the sheets, her eyes closing. Sirena looked down at the splashes of soup on her arms in confusion, and looked at the clock on the wall. Ten seconds passed.

"Lyla!" Sirena gasped. "We aren't transforming!"

"I know." Lyla rasped from under the covers. "Last night the same thing seemed to be happening with me. It took ages for my tail to appear, and now it isn't happening anymore."

"This is really bad!" Sirena cried. "We'll be stuck with legs for ever!"

Lyla nodded weakly.

"We should have stayed in the ocean. Living on land was a bad idea, but we've gone and done it. We're land people now." she whispered.

Sirena shook her head repeatedly, pacing the room.

"No. I won't let it happen. We need to help Nixie."

"It's already happened." Lyla murmured, her eyes closing. "We won't be able to help Nixie. Cam can do that."

"How!" Sirena's voice cracked.

"He'll find a way. He will." Lyla trailed off and fell asleep.

**XxXxX**

It was quarter to midnight by the time Cam heard Nixie splashing down the corridor in the dark, bringing cooked fish.

He didn't say anything as she silently passed the food through the bars to him.

"Thanks." He whispered, fingering the warm fish in his hands. He looked up. "But even if I do take this, I won't survive for much longer down here."

"I know." Nixie whispered. "But I want you to know that I never intended for you to be locked down here, it was all Arroyo's orders. I'm so sorry."

"It doesn't matter about me." Cam looked down. "I'm a traitor to everyone, including you, even if you don't remember. If you ever get your memory back, you have every right to leave me here to die."

Nixie didn't answer. She backed away and sank her shoulders into the water, preparing to swim away. Before diving down, she stopped herself, turning back to Cam.

"I'll be back tomorrow night to see you again." she gave him what looked to Cam like a tiny half smile and was gone again.

Cam stared after her in awe. Little did either of them know, some dark, angry black eyes were watching everything.

"That boy will die and I will make it painful." Arroyo muttered to himself, scowling at Cam and then swimming away in his invisibility.

**AN: Sorry the the short length but I hope you liked it! Please review! I love anything you have to say :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Sorry for the wait! Enjoy the chapter. I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

Rita came home from her long day at work to find Lyla and Sirena lying asleep on the spare bed upstairs.

She walked into the room and frowned. Lyla was completely underneath the duvet, with stray wisps of golden hair sticking to the pillow. Sirena was in a strange position lying on top. In her hand was a spoon, dripping with seafood soup.

Rita noticed the upturned bowl and the stains all over the seashell embroidered covers and sheets. Sirena and Lyla's arms were sticky with soup.

"Sirena, Lyla, wake up!" Rita broke the silence. Sirena stirred slightly, and her eyes flickered open. A muffled cough came from under the blanket where Lyla was curled up.

"What is going on?" Rita exclaimed.

"Lyla's sick." Sirena whispered, lifting herself from the bed and smoothing her messy hair. She sneezed and rubbed her eyes, turning to face Rita. "And I brought her some soup but it spilt on both of us. We… didn't transform."

"I can see that." Rita answered, glancing at the soup that had went everywhere including all over Sirena and Lyla. "Lyla's sick? Come to think of it," she added, "You don't look too well yourself."

"Why is this happening?" Lyla coughed from under the blanket.

"I'll move you two to the couch and clean up over here, okay? Then I'll try and see if I can explain a few things." Rita told them. "After that, go to the moon pool, even if you still have legs. Whatever has happened, that is the best place to replenish your powers."

"But won't all those mermen will be swarming the place?" Sirena cried. Lyla flinched underneath the blanket.

"Get Zac to help. He will blend in with the mermen and then it will be easier to get back to the moon pool where you will be safe." Rita finished.

**XxXxX**

Nixie swam down the familiar corridor connecting to Cam's room once again. It was the seventh night she had done so, and she was nearly surprised she hadn't been caught by Arroyo yet. Each time, she'd brought the boy food and fresh water to keep him alive but she could tell he was getting very sick from being down here in cold water for so long.

"That's it." Nixie sighed, settling in her usual spot next to Cam's cage. "I can't stand seeing you being stuck in here. No matter how much food and water I bring you, you're going to die anyway. I have to get you out."

"I don't see how." Cam answered glumly.

"I'll make sure you survive," Nixie repeated. "I will."

Arroyo peered around the corner of the cavern, scowling at Nixie as she grinned and laughed as she chatted to the stupid land boy.

"You are so beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that?" Cam whispered.

"Arroyo did once." Nixie replied, sadness killing her smile. "But… I don't think he really meant it. He says he loves me, but when he looks at me, he just stares straight through my heart."

"I had no idea." Cam murmured. "I'm sorry."

Nixie shook her head, straightening up and attempting to cover up her anxiety.

"No, no Cam. I don't mind talking about it. Actually, it's the first time I've ever spoken to somebody else regarding how Arroyo treats me. I feel like I trust you. Can you accept that?"

"No problem." Cam returned her small smile.

"That BASTARD." Arroyo muttered to himself under his breath, glaring at the pair from his hiding place. "He thinks he can go ahead and steal her trust? Well I don't think so!"

He quietly left the room and swam out the back corridor. He surfaced outside.

"You got it open yet?" he roared to the mermen working on breaking the block in the underwater entrance to the moon pool.

"Nope!" One of them yelled back. "Some stupid mermaid has gone and used her dinky little moon ring on it! It's solid!"

A growl rumbled in Arroyo's throat and he curled up his fists into balls.

"Those idiots! Think they can still own this place, huh? Well here's an order from your king!"

All the other mermen turned to listen. Arroyo cleared his throat. "Any mermaid you see here, good or bad, destroy them at once!" he snarled as his pod listened intently. We must clean this place of those orange scaled little monsters! UNDERSTAND?!"

All the mermen nodded in agreement except one. An old friend of Dylan's, Bay, shouted a question that tightened the lock of Arroyo's fists.

"Isn't Nixie a mermaid? Isn't she on our side?"

"Not. Any. More." Arroyo growled. Gasps erupted from the pod but nobody protested. "Do not kill her immediately." Arroyo continued angrily. "I want time to straighten her out. So leave her alone from the time being."

Nods all came from the mermen, apart from Bay, who simply folded his arms and stared at Arroyo in a mix of confusion and anger.

Arroyo's black gaze skimmed the crowd until he focussed on Bay.

"Don't be like your old friend, will you." he muttered, before diving down to clear his mind in deeper waters.

**AN: So, did you like it? Review! If you have questions I will answer them!**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: OMG! I nearly forgot about DYLAN! He will definitely be in this chapter :) I don't own Mako Mermaids**

"Zac." Evie tapped her foot on the ground. "Are you even listening?"

Zac quickly looked up, and straightened himself on the chair in the living room.

"Huh?"

"The wedding, Zac. What could be more important?" Evie snapped.

"Oh. Right." Zac responded. "Sorry, I was just thinking about…"

"Lyla?" Evie scowled.

"No." Zac answered quickly. "I was thinking about… the uh, the cake. Wedding cake. Whether it will be… tasty?" Evie stared at him angrily. "...Or not?"

"Zac, GET OUT!" She roared. "Go and kiss her all you want then! Cancel the wedding, for all I care!"

"Evie-"

"Zac? Don't." she cut him off, holding back tears. "I don't want to hear it. Go and cancel all the bookings, all the arrangements, everything I'VE (she gestured to herself) done, to make our relationship and wedding to be more special than that huge love you have for Lyla!"

Evie ran into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. Zac could only sit in silent regret while she cried muffled waterfalls of tears into her pillow. Then he heard a smash on the floor.

It was all Zac needed to hear the crack of the hearted photo frame that held the picture of her and him embraced in a kiss as it shattered on the bedroom floor. She'd broken it. She'd broken everything they'd ever had.

Zac stepped out on to the front lawn and sat down on the stone steps outside the doorway, feeling unable to forgive himself.

**XxXxX**

Dylan walked down the street alone, going over and over in his head the ideas of where Lyla could be. He hadn't been able to find her for nearly a week. She said she would help him adjust to land.

Oh, that was all over now. Dylan was convinced he understood land a whole lot better now - First, Carly had a huge go at him for leaving the door of the cafe wide open when he left that night, then a bunch of girls had scoffed at him for never wearing a shirt and having such messy hair, a boy had pushed him into the water "for fun" at the beach, causing Dylan to be forced into a fast getaway before anybody saw him.

People right now were giving him strange looks as he walked down the path still lacking decent clothing or footwear and even now he was struggling to walk properly with legs.

Suddenly he looked up, hearing a loud smash coming from one of the houses. He looked around and saw a young man with dark hair sitting outside. It was the same boy that Lyla had gone off with that night.

Zac, his name was.

Dylan cautiously approached Zac.

Zac's gaze fell on Dylan with recognition, and the uncomfortable look on his face increased into a grimace.

"What's… going on?" Dylan began nervously.

"I've seen you before." Zac answered with a frown. "With Lyla."

" I know." Dylan replied. "Are you her boyfriend?"

Zac felt like dying.

"... No."

"Oh." Dylan frowned. "But you seemed pretty angry when-"

"Forget it, okay?" Zac snapped. "I've had enough. Of everything."

There was a long silence.

"Do… Do you know where she is?" Dylan finally asked.

"She lives at Rita's house, but she's often out so I don't think you'd find her there right now." Zac responded.

"Who's Rita?" Dylan questioned. "I'm sorry, I just really need to find Lyla."

"Why?" Zac answered flatly.

"Because she said she would help me." Dylan said, scuffing his heel on the ground awkwardly.

"Well you know what?" Zac challenged. "I'm not helping you. Because I love her, alright?"

Dylan ran from the house and all the way down the street until he couldn't run any more. He felt like throwing up. Lyla never wanted him at all!

**XxXxX**

Nixie instantly found a change in the air when she roamed Mako as she always had. The mermen gave her strange looks and some even smiled evilly at her as she swam past.

Arroyo seemed to avoid her all the time, and at night when she looked into his private cave where he slept - he was never there.

Nixie stopped swimming when she heard a wail coming from Cam's dungeon.

"Please! Don't hurt me!" he shouted fearfully as Arroyo aimed a knife at his throat.

Nixie burst into the cave, horror struck.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" she screamed at her husband.

A smile curled back Arroyo's lips and he lowered the knife, turning around to face her.

"I thought so."

"Thought what?" Nixie demanded.

He thrust the knife at Cam again.

"You and him. I never thought of you, innocent Nixie, as a CHEATER! And a liar." he spat the words in her face.

"His name is Cam." Nixie said bitterly, holding herself strong. "And I have every right to spend time with him, because you don't have control over me. You're the one who is a liar. How could you make me live such a life all these years when I should really belong with my own kind!"

Cam's eyes widened.

"Nixie-" he gasped.

"I've changed my mind!" Nixie silenced him with her hand in the air.

"Arroyo, I quit. I'm getting a divorce. I'm getting away from you. I'm splitting. I'm leaving. Whatever it takes. This," she gestured all around her, "is not who I am."

Arroyo was foaming with rage. Slowly, he looked down. The knife was still in his fist. He looked up again.

A smirk formed on his face.

"You wanna know where you belong? You wanna know what you really deserve?!"

"No!" Cam yelled, sticking his hand out through the bars, grappling for Nixie.

"AARRGGHHHH!" Arroyo let out a humongous roar and launched himself with the weapon.

Cam threw himself hard toward Nixie so hard that the cage shattered. His arms reached out in a rush, and he pulled her away and into a kiss.

Arroyo toppled over and fell on his face, the knife stabbing into his head as he hit the ground.

Nixie pulled away from Cam as the room filled with silence.

**AN: Wow… I didn't think I was gonna write a chapter like that today of all days! I hope you all liked it :) IT ISN'T THE END! THE MERMEN ARE STILL TRYING TO TAKE OVER MAKO! LYLA AND SIRENA ARE STILL STUCK ON LAND! DYLAN AND LYLA AND ZAC AND EVIE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A DILEMMA! NEW PROBLEMS WILL ARISE! DON'T GO AWAY! :D**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:Here's the next chapter! Sorry about the minor confusion before, you all probably got a notification about a new chapter for this but there wasn't. I had to delete it after posting because the formatting went all wrong for some reason. But here it is now! Enjoy!I don't own Mako Mermaids.**

Nixie could hardly believe her eyes. Arroyo was dead! Mixed feelings rushed through her, ten years of being ordered around, being made to believe she had no past other than with him. But now it was completely gone… she was free. And what's more, she remembered. She remembered everything.

"Cam…" she carefully turned to face him.

"Why did you change your mind?" Cam asked shakily. "You said that you belonged with him, not me."

"Well, I thought a lot about what you said, and…" Nixie stopped speaking and became deep in thought.

"You mean, you remember?" Cam whispered.

"Yes." she burned him once again with her blue glare. But it wasn't cold anymore, it was warm.

"I have to get out of this place. Everyone on land will be looking for me by now, and I am in real need of a good night's sleep in a bed and a big plate of blueberry pancakes. Meet me on the beach tomorrow?" Cam gave her a tiny smile.

"You're right, you must be really hungry. And cold." Nixie placed a warm hand on the goosebumps up Cam's arms. Cam bit back a shiver and gave her another hopeful grin.

"I, um." He didn't say it.

"I love you too Cam!" Nixie gave him a big hug, and another kiss.

"I'll see you tomorrow." he squeezed her hand and left the cave, swimming up and out the exit being careful not to be seen by the other mermen which would kill him for sure if he was noticed. Nixie's smile faded and she stared back down at Arroyo's body. It floated on the surface, adding a red tinge to the still seawater.

Her blank glare turned into a scowl and she tore the white strings of pearls out of her hair and shook the dark locks free. It felt like old times. Back when she was only sixteen, back when her best friend were Sirena and Lyla. Sirena and Lyla! Nixie shoved Arroyo's body away as it dissolved into nothing as all dead merpeople did, and she zoomed out of the cave feeling more free than she'd ever felt in her life.

XxXxX

It took Lyla over half an hour to get herself out of bed. It was a mystery why she was so much more sick than Sirena, who had gotten up two hours ago and left to go back to her house where David and Brooke were waiting. Lyla dragged her feet into the bathroom where she washed her face with warm water, cleaning the crust away from her eyes and struggling to get used to the fact she wasn't transforming.

She stumbled back into her bedroom and changed into fresh clothing and ran a comb through the tangles in her messy hair. Lyla gave up and tossed the comb on the floor and picked up her phone, selecting Zac from her contacts list. She touched the call button and pressed the screen to her ear sleepily.

"Hello?" Zac's voice sounded unhappy.

"Zac." Lyla said gratefully. "Something awful has happened, I - "

"Same here," Zac interrupted, holding back the anxiety in his words. Lyla listened quietly. Zac cleared his throat. "Evie… she's given up on me. Canceled the wedding, yelled at me and smashed our favourite photo."

Lyla swallowed hard. "Oh Zac." she whispered, stifling a cough. "I really, I do I mean I wish I could come and… but…" she couldn't find the right sentence to use.

"I was hoping we could, you know, take a swim together or something." Zac suggested nervously. There was a long silence.

"Zac, I can't be a mermaid anymore." Lyla choked out, tears muffling her speech.

"What?!" Zac couldn't believe what he was hearing. His phone slipped from his grip and smashed into pieces on the ground.

"Zac? Zac?!" Lyla repeated. "Zac, are you here? Zac! Zac..." Lyla slumped down on the bed. Did he hang up on her? Could her worst fears have come true and he didn't love her anymore? Did he only love the mermaid side of her…?

XxXxX

Dylan dove off the pier and began swimming toward Mako. Nobody wanted him. Land now seemed worse than any of the rude merman jokes back in the pod about legs. Land wasn't for him. Lyla never liked him, let alone love. She loved Zac, and they would be together forever and Dylan would have to be alone. Alone.

The words echoed in his mind, making him more and more miserable each time they repeated. "Life isn't fair." he murmured under his breath, swimming closer to Mako without hesitation. He'd have to return to his pod. Return to Arroyo and live the terrible life he always had, forever. But when he arrived, Arroyo was gone.

"He's dead!" His old friend Bay told him.

"What? Who killed him?"

Bay lowered his voice. "The rumour is, Nixie."

"Nixie!" Dylan left Bay and swam to Nixie's private cave where she slept most nights. He entered the room without knocking on the rocks first.

"Come to kill me?" Nixie questioned angrily, swishing her tail on her soft seabed. "No! But you killed Arroyo!" Dylan exclaimed. "And that's a good thing." Nixie said. "Because he lied to me. I remember my past now, and this is the last day I'm spending with these filthy mermen."

"They'll kill you if you show yourself." Dylan warned. "I'll help you leave, if you like."

"Why have you come back all of a sudden?" Nixie demanded. "I thought you were banished."

"I was banished because I wanted him to tell you the truth. He did the same thing to me, a long time ago. He made me believe that he was my real father. But it was all lies."

"Really?" Nixie's voice softened. "I'm... sorry."

"We need to save Mako, you know." Dylan changed the subject quickly. Nixie nodded slowly.

"But first… I want to see Lyla and Sirena."

"Right -" The word "Lyla" sounding from Nixie's lips stopped Dylan's speech. He swallowed hard. "Lyla is your friend?" Nixie nodded, frowning. "And Sirena. We were all best friends all the way until the um…"

"The bit when you lost your memory." Dylan reminded her. "You should know, it's partly Arroyo's fault the rock hit your head. He was throwing it."

"I am so glad he's dead, I'd have a party." Nixie spat. "But I can't, because I have no friends to invite except for Cam. That's why I need to get Lyla and Sirena back in my life."

"Are you sure about Ly - " Dylan tried to stop his urge to tell Nixie everything. "...I mean, are you sure you want to?"

"Of course." Nixie confirmed. "I have to do this."

**Author's Note: Sorry that I didn't include Cam in this chapter! But he will be in the next one, I promise!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Okay, before you read this chapter, I need to tell you all that there is a thingy called SOPA which is going to delete everything fanmade on the internet INCLUDING ALL FANFICTIONS unless there are 100,000 signatures on a petition before March 19. On your search engine type 'stop sopa 2014' and the first result is the link you have to go to to sign the petition. Hurry! we don't have much time! Warning for the chapter - this one is a little bit violent, and there is some bad language but I made it like this "* #$%" if it helps. **

**And, I don't own Mako Mermaids, duh.**

Lyla had thought over her options for a while now, and everything seemed to be held back because she wasn't a mermaid anymore. Neither was Sirena. Even though she knew that Zac would definitely not have feelings for her anymore, she had to get him to help her get to the moon pool to get the powers back. It was a full moon tonight, so she didn't have much time.

It painfully broke her heart that Zac had just hung up on her like this. A small while ago he'd told her that he loved her. But now… Lyla hated to think what he thought of her now. A worthless land girl, just like Evie. And the thought of Evie on top of all this made Lyla feel like throwing up.

After trying to call Zac back a bunch of times getting no answer, she decided to go straight to his house and confront him. Lyla texted Sirena what she was going to do, declining her friend's request to join her, and she left Rita's house. Where was Rita, anyway?

"Meow!"

Lyla yelped as she tripped over Rita's kitten. Sandy mewed again and ran to the empty food bowl. Lyla sighed and threw the cat some prawns, heading out the door to walk to Zac's.

** XxXxX**

Rita smiled to herself in silent pleasure, sitting with her new partner Derek at the table at his house.

"Rita, I have a favour to ask of you." Derek began, a smile creeping up on his expression as he held her hand.

"Anything for you."

Rita leaned over to kiss him. Derek pulled back uncomfortably.

"Are you alright?"

Rita asked in concern. "Oh, fine."

_Idiot,_ Derek thought to himself. _I've got to ask her, now. I can't let this stupid land woman start thinking I want to marry her. I have to do what Arroyo told me to do before._

"Derek, if there's anything you want to tell me…" Rita frowned, starting to feel suspicious. Derek's gaze flicked to a glass of water on the table. Rita followed his gaze, feeling nervous.

"Derek, you know about the promise you made, never to tell anyone about my secret, I trusted you with it and you said - "

"As if I'd do something stupid like exposing you." Derek cut her off. "It would be a danger to all of us, wouldn't it?"

"Us?" Rita gulped.

"Taking over Mako would be a lot easier if you were gone, wouldn't it?"

Derek drew a knife from his pocket. Rita leapt from the table, backing away.

"You lied to me!" she gasped. "You're one of them!"

"Oh, I didn't think you'd mind." Derek snarled, following her as she edged back to the door. He picked up the glass of water and held the knife in his other hand.

"After all, It's great to belong with your own kind, isn't it?"

"How do you know I left my pod?!" Rita demanded.

"Well my pod is a lot bigger than yours." Derek said. "And as a result, we know everything!"

Rita started to run out the door. Derek lunged for her and poured the glass of water over her head. She let out a scream as she fell to the ground as a mermaid. Derek continued to taunt her as he approached with the knife.

"Ever wondered how Harry died?" He yelled.

This was the last straw for Rita. She dived for him, despite the weight of her tail on the ground, and used her powers to fling the knife from his grasp. With her other hand she clenched her fist to steam off the water on her tail.

She quickly regained her legs and closed up her fingers even more, to choke Derek. He staggered to the ground, clutching his neck. Rita didn't stop until he died.

"Dead just like Harry!" she yelled, kicking his body off the pier. "I'm never too old to cower in a fight!"

Lyla was walking down the road close by and saw the scene unfold. She sprinted over to Rita, breathless with horror.

"What happened!" she cried, looking down into the water, at a merman body slowly fading into nothing.

"No time." Rita pushed Lyla back from the edge. "Go get Zac, no matter what you will need your powers urgently from now until we defeat that pod! Go!" Lyla had only a second to nod before sprinting back down the road, all the way to Zac's.

She slowed her pace as she ran up the driveway. She bashed on the door.

"Zac! I need you! Now!" she called frantically, pressing the doorbell excessively and kicking the door. Grunting to herself, she twisted her hand to use her powers to unlock the door. She heard the click, and it swung open revealing a screaming Evie.

"YOU ARE ONE F#* ING $#8(! &^%^$& & &9 ^*% %$! ZAC DOESN'T DESERVE YOU AT ALL BECAUSE YOU NEED TO JUST F #$ OFF AND LEAVE! GO BACK AND DIE! I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU! $&*^ % $%#%% $#%# %!""

Lyla covered her ears to block out Evie's horrifying language.

"Evie! Shut up for a second!" Lyla yelled over the top. Evie fell silent, but still stared hatred at Lyla, tears streaming down her face.

Lyla took a deep breath.

"Look. I'm not here to make you say those words at me like you just did, let alone move out on Zac. I've got a bigger problem, and nothing but Zac's merman-ness serves as a reason for why I need to find him."

"Why?!' Evie spat. "From the start, you've always left me out of everything. You never let me be a part. You and Zac -"

"You never WANTED TO HELP!" Lyla couldn't help the words coming out of her mouth. "Now WHERE THE HELL IS ZAC?!"

"Not here for sure." Evie retorted, backing down from the fight. "I havn't seen him since last night. I don't even care where he is. You two can do all you want, I am excluding myself from the whole business! And that's final!" Evie slammed the door in Lyla's face.

Lyla slowly turned around and noticed Zac running up the driveway to her.

"Zac -" Lyla began, expecting the worst.

Zac cut her off, embracing her and kissing her.

**A/N: Um, yeah, sorry for the small cliffhanger I've left but I've been busy writing this other story I'm preparing for H2o and I couldn't manage to drag this chapter out as long as I would have liked. Hope you liked it though :) OH WHOOPS! I SAID I WOULD PUT CAM IN THIS CHAPTER! SORRY! HE WILL BE IN THE NEXT ONE I PROMISE! oh and don't forget to sign the STOP SOPA petition. or this fanfic and yours too will be GONE.**


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